Climbing the Waterfall
by AcausalTrilby
Summary: Serafall Leviathan met an unusual devil one day and the pair become friends.
1. Chapter 1

The first time that Serafall Sitri met Raise Gremory was at one of the many social functions that she was invited to, as one of the heroes of the underworld. This time the hosts were the famous Gremory family who boasted the honour of being both one of the remaining 72 pillars of the underworld as well as being the family that Sirzhecs, her friend and ally throughout the devil civil war was originally born into. Not that the newly crowned Lucifer could or would ever maintain any degree of separation from his family despite not being considered a part of it. That closeness between families and peerages was apparently a Gremory family trait or so the family liked to portray it as such. Serafall was never very enthusiastic about these things. While she enjoyed the opportunity to needle Sirzhecs and Ajuka she hated the dry topics and power grabs that were promulgated by the fossils that typically attended these family meetings.

After the eighth head of their family engaged her in topic about something that would be to their mutual benefit she decided to abandon the hall and get some fresh air. Cutting off those who were trying to further occupy her attention she gave a sign that hopefully meant 'I am occupied by something important and regret not being able to talk to you' and not 'I hate you and your family and want to break off relationships for a few centuries.' Finally as she approached the door she grabbed one last cocktail off from a scurrying waiter and exited into the cool night air.

As the door closed behind her all the tension that she felt left her body. Breathing in the crisp air of the night she sipped at her cocktail before realising that it was cherry flavoured and very deliberately setting it down on the ground away from her. Taking a deep breath she scanned the night and realised that everybody else was still in the party. But where her eyes told her that the night was empty her ears expressed a different story.

The soft sounds of a piano playing in the distance impressed itself upon her mind and she tilted her head trying to triangulate the position of the mysterious musician. Looking up her eyes fell upon a balcony and then with a single flap of her wings she was speeding through the air and soaring over the terrace. The sight that greeted her there was that of a single boy sitting on a bench in the middle of a garden with no musical instrument in sight.

The boy had the red hair and brilliant blue eyes that identified him as a member of the Gremory family. He looked to be about twelve in age and his wings were held aloft as he hummed along to the music. He wore what amounted to an old-fashioned business suit that looked slightly absurd on his small frame. As Serafall ascended past the floor of the balcony he turned to inspect her, his eyes scanning her body once over before they came to rest upon her own.

Serafall landed and she was about to inquire both his name and the source of the music when something changed. The world seemed to flicker and a drop of sweat ran down the back of the female Satan's neck as she was taken off guard. No piano music ran through the grove and the young man changed. His right wing became a parody of its former self as a twisted and torn ruin and as he stood up Serafall became aware that his right leg was also similarly twisted.

"Are you enjoying my garden Leviathan," the young boy said calmly to Serafall.

The Satan started to reply and then stopped. Inspecting the six by eight metres balcony she realised that besides the plain stone bench and some grass it was devoid of any other greenery or ornamentation. All in all it looked bare and simple compared to the ostentatious finery that festooned the many yards that she had seen as part of the devil nobility. She grasped for words to describe the situation and came up with the perfect set.

"It looks incomplete," she said more to herself. She puffed out her chest and held her magic wand aloft. "Right now this garden looks like it needs some Leviathan magic."

"Stop," the boy said cutting off Serafall to her surprise. "It is my garden," the boy said emphasizing his ownership of it. "It is my prerogative to complete it in a manner that I wish."

Serafall recovered from her surprise and a smile adorned her face as she took in the frank response from the boy whose name she still had yet to discover. It was quite refreshing compared to the double speak and polite denials. If she had offered to one of the devils downstairs she probably would have gotten a polite 'such a simple task is beneath the attention of the Leviathan' or 'we couldn't ask you to do such a small thing.'

Instead he had essentially told her to mind her own business. Intrigued she watched as he sat down and patted the bench next to him. "If you're going to remain here you might as well sit down," he said. He snapped his fingers and Serafall watched as a plate of sandwiches appeared next to the bench and he picked it up and set it upon his lap. "You can have some if you want," he offered holding out the plate of sandwiches.

"Illusion magic," Serafall remarked hitting her fist into her open palm. "That's what you're doing. You're pretty good."

"Compared to the average devil I am," the boy said modestly. "But devils have never quite specialized in this particular breed of magic. There are probably others against whom I would measure up less favourably."

"So why are you up here instead of downstairs with the rest of the party," Serafall asked intrigued.

"I could ask you the same Miss Hero of the Underworld," the boy said back and now Serafall was feeling rather foolish for not knowing his name. "I'm sure there are countless people down there to whom talking with you would be the highlight of their evening."

Serafall frowned at the reminder that his words had brought. There had been a lot of people recently who had started bringing up the subject of marriage contracts. Their subtlety varied depending on the devil but without fail in almost every conversation that she had been part of the subject of marriage had been brought up. Even her parents had gotten in on the act with her father pointing out prospective suitors that would be a good match and her mother often tried to get her to talk about any cute boys. Any names mentioned would often be introduced to her in a week or two under some pretext.

"I got a bit tired of the chatter so I decided to get some fresh air," Serafall only partially lied.

"I doubt there is anybody who would want to talk to me," the boy said as he flapped his wings causing his right one to flop around pathetically. "The underworld is a society based on power. I highly doubt that a cripple will be worth the illustrious lords' time."

Serafall hummed over that. While the child in front of her had an undoubtable handicap, his illusions were superior to anything that she had seen. She watched as he snapped his fingers and his leg and wing returned to their pristine state and the music resumed. Both auditory and visual illusions would make him a catch for any peerage. Still Serafall refrained from offering him a spot amongst hers. While they seemed to get on well together she didn't really know him well enough to make that commitment. Hell, she didn't even know his name.

"What is your name anyway?" she said curiously awaiting the answer.

"Raise Gremory," he replied back immediately. "And you are Serafall Sitri," he said using her family name instead of the name she had earned. "It is nice to meet you."

They sat in silence for a few moments and Serafall helped herself to one of the sandwiches, to her delight the insides were a meaty cheesy mix that stimulated her taste buds. The piano melody transitioned between tunes as her fellow devil conducted an imaginary musician to serenade the pair.

Finally after minutes of idle chatter amidst the harmonious illusion, Raise straightened up and tilted his head to the side as if listening to a sound only he could hear. "They are finishing up for the night," he said. "You should go; whatever spectacle that ensues they will probably expect the Leviathan to be there for it."

"Hmm," Serafall pouted at his reason for getting rid of her. "And how do you know this," she questioned.

"I have a few pairs of eyes on the inside," Raise said reclining on his bench again. The music had died down by now and only the stillness of the night remained. "You have been excellent company Serafall Sitri. Feel free to drop by anytime to visit my garden. Hopefully the next time that you arrive it will look far more picturesque."

Serafall nodded to that and it was with no small amount of regret that she stepped off the balcony and landed gracefully on the floor. The music faded as she moved away from the younger Gremory's balcony and closer to the hall until it faded into nothingness as she reached the door.

The rest of the night was wholly forgettable.

xxx

Serafall was having a bad day as she sat at her desk furiously making use of the quill that had been given to her by some or other well-wisher. As a Satan she normally did not have a large amount of paperwork as the mundanities of running the foreign affairs office were taken care of by junior staff and she often had a lot of time to just sit back and write a script for her upcoming show.

All her free time in the conceivable future had dried up as swiftly as a puddle in the desert. Due to the actions of some inconceivable idiots, Olympus was now upset with the entirety of devil society. Despite the power of some of the ultimate class devils, and Sirzhecs and Ajuka's power in particular, the underworld would be completely crushed by the comparativeness cohesiveness of the powerful faction of the gods.

Putting the latest in a long line of newly revised treaties down onto her desk Serafall Leviathan stood up and stretched. There was a slight pain in her back from being hunched over her desk the whole day and she rubbed the base of her spine cursing her larger than average breasts as she did so. She picked up her mug of coffee and found to her disappointment that her drink had turned ice cold. Grimacing at the thought of having to drink reheated coffee she instead decided to leave her office and go to visit Sirzechs. The Lucifer should be having just as hard a time with this whole mess and with any luck he would welcome a distraction.

Summoning a teleportation circle she teleported herself all the way to the gates of the Gremory mansion. While normally she would have teleported directly into his office the last time she did that she found both Sirzechs and Grayfia christening his desk and she didn't want to chance an encounter like that one again.

Unfurling her wings she soared over the gate bypassing the security that didn't even try to prevent her access. Whistling cheerfully to herself as she strolled through the garden she walked up to the front door and picked the lock. Opening the door she was confronted by the stern visage of Grayfia Lucifuge wearing her traditional maid's uniform.

"Sirzhecs Lucifer is not here at the moment," she said without any prompting. "If you have an urgent message for him tell me and I will relay it to him when he gets back."

Serafall puffed out her cheeks at her statement. Despite being fond of Sirzhecs she really didn't like his wife. It wasn't for some stupid reason like she also used ice magic and was the strongest female in the underworld after Serafall herself or even because the strict authoritarian maid had the exact opposite personality as her. She didn't like Grayfia because she represented everything that was wrong about marriage in Serafall's mind. The marriage between Grayfia and Sirzhecs despite the fact that they were obviously in love always looked like an inescapable prison that constrains both parties. Sirzhecs was always forced to tone down his antics around his Queen and similarly Grayfia had to devote vast amounts of time to looking after Sirzhecs. Honestly the Leviathan could never imagine having that kind of relationship with anybody.

"Nah," Serafall retorted ignoring Grayfia's disapproving look. "Everybody else in this house is boring." Except one she amended in her head. "Be seeing you," she said giving a cheery wave as she exited the room.

Instead of leaving the manor she took off into the skies above the manor and sped away to the second floor balcony where she had met the youngest son of the Gremory family four months ago. Arriving at the balcony she was pleased to see that grass covered the entirety of the balcony and there were several flowers that grew in beds around the border of the garden. Raise sat in the middle of the garden on the bench in his pristine yet old-fashioned suit and with his superficially undamaged wings held aloft.

Serafall had spent a few nights since she had first met the boy reading up on illusion techniques and how to break them. According to the book there were two distinct types of illusion, namely internal and external. One focused on transmitting the fantasy directly into the senses of the opponent and the other used magic to coat the external environment and create external visual and auditory stimulus. They both required different approaches to dispel. To that end Serafall coursed magic through her body unpredictably in the hopes of throwing off the illusion.

"It's external," Raise said taking a sip of orange juice that had just appeared in his hand. "Go ahead, try to remove them."

Serafall blushed at being found out so easily but she decided to take advantage of his invitation. She summoned her magic and flooded it throughout the environment willing it to crush the illusion. The air turned colder due to the natural inclination of her magic but she was used to this. What she wasn't used to was when her eardrums nearly burst to a massive roar and three massive dragons soared down from the sky poised to devour her. Instantly she was on guard and preparing an ice spell to take down the draconic beasts when she suddenly stopped.

Sitting there and not moving an inch out of place was Raise Gremory still sipping at his orange juice. "I'm in an illusion aren't I," she deadpanned to the calm child. His only response was a nod of his head and with a snap of his fingers the illusion dispelled. "No," the Leviathan thought. "The illusion has been reapplied," she noted out loud as she saw the pristine state of the young Gremory's wings. "Was that a layered illusion?" she asked impressed. The books had made mention of them as the part of the ultimate level of an illusionists ability. It was quite frankly an illusion hidden behind an illusion so that if a single layer fell it would be immediately replaced by another layer.

"Greetings, Serafall Sitri," Raise said shuffling to the side of the bench allowing her to take a spot on his left. "I see you have done some light reading on illusionist techniques."

"Didn't do much good against you," Serafall said playfully pouting.

"Did you expect it to," he replied. "You can't read a few chapters in a book and expect to bypass my illusions."

"Is that offer to visit your garden still valid?" Serafall asked still hovering over the balcony. When he nodded affirmatively she let herself drop down to the floor and took hold of the glass of orange juice offered to her.

"I'm going to manage to break through your illusions eventually," Serafall said with a hint of mischief in her voice.

Raise just shrugged but the expression on his face told her that he doubted she would manage. "So you don't get on well with Grayfia," he said letting nothing slip into his voice.

"Yeah," Serafall said. "I just can't stand her. No offence if you're fond of her but our natures just clash."

"Hmm," Raise said. "You don't have to live with her. I can't count the number of times I've used my magic over illusions to get myself out of some or other thing that she wants to make me do."

"That sounds like her alright," Serafall empathised.

"I know," Raise said with exasperation toning his voice. "I mean if you're going to dress as a maid can you at least stop trying to boss me around while doing so. I'm not really nor will I ever be part of the whole serving hierarchy."

Serafall nodded at that. "Wait a minute," she said trying to go through her memory. "I didn't actually ask. Where do you fit in the family?"

"Sirzhecs brother," Raise said taking another sip of his orange juice before putting it down. A snap of his fingers and a snippet of piano started playing.

"So does that mean that you're the Gremory heir," Serafall asked curiously. She was under the impression that she would have heard his name if he was.

"It's complicated," Raise began and ended ignoring the look on the Leviathan's face. He reclined in the bench with his arms crossed clearly unwilling to talk any further about the topic.

"Okay then," Serafall reached around for different topics. "Why are you so certain I won't be able to break your illusions?"

"It is for the same reason that I will never be able to freeze you," Raise said. "A person who looks up books on illusions for the purpose of breaking them will never be able to match somebody who lives and breathes them. Despite your level of power and your expert control over your magic you will never attain my abilities with illusions."

The young Gremory's words were logical and calm but still they lit a fire under Serafall. "I'll prove you wrong," she said to the much younger devil. "I'll learn how to break all your illusions in less than one year and once I do I'll have you teach me how to make illusions of my own."

"You are so eager to steal the one talent that I can truly call my own," Raise said in reply and there was a note of something that Serafall couldn't quite decipher. "I will however accept," he said. "In return you will hire for me a practitioner of Youjutsu and Senjutsu in order to help me practice my illusions."

"Deal," the Leviathan said a bit less eagerly than before. "I can give you an advantage," she reluctantly said acting against her nature.

"The fact that you are challenging me to my own speciality should be enough to win for me," Raise said waving off her offer.

"But I'm both older than you and have way more magical power than you," Serafall said refusing to let go of her generous offer. "Besides there are only a few more illusions that devils have discovered and for all of them the counters are known."

"That just means that I have to create my own," Raise said smiling. "Did you not think of doing the same thing at your age? After all you were a devil with ice in her veins surrounded by a clan of water users. Do you deny you experimented when you had the same number of years behind you?"

"That's true," Serafall admitted. "But there was a war going on at that time. My magic was the only thing standing between my life and death."

Raise acknowledged the statement with a nod of his head. "That's true, for you mastering magic was a necessity. It was a way to increase your power and stave off your demise while you believe that for me it is a simple hobby or past time." He shook his head. "You downplay my immersion within the illusory realms. For me the art of casting illusion is a way of life"

For a few moments the two of them sat silently contemplating the challenge. Another illusion dispersed to Serafall's right and she turned to see a platter of chocolate chip biscuits appear on Raise's knees. She swiped two mischievously ignoring Raise's disapproving look.

"Of course you can eat my biscuits," Raise said sarcastically. "Why are you here anyway?"

"If I remember correctly you invited me here," Serafall said cheerfully. "Don't tell me you're sick of my company."

"If you wanted my company you would have travelled directly to my garden," Raise said finishing off his juice before setting the glass down. "Instead you went directly into the house. Obviously you wanted to talk to somebody else initially, most likely my brother."

"You are pretty clever," Serafall complimented him. "I initially wanted to meet with Sirzhecs but he was currently out."

"Yeah, he's been busy with that whole nasty business with Olympus," Raise said to the Leviathan's amazement. "Yes I know about that mess. I do live with the guy and I regularly check his paperwork just to see if there's anything interesting going on."

"Are you sure you should be admitting that to a Satan," Serafall said but her lip was twitching at the thoughts of Sirzhecs documents being raided by his baby brother.

"If you see one be sure to tell me and I'll stop," Raise said dryly. "Come to think of it don't you have plenty of work to do as well? Aren't foreign affairs basically your whole job?"

"I have been working," Serafall said defensively. "I was signing papers until my writing hand was busted," she said holding the appendage limply and dangling it about. "What do you think about the whole situation anyway?" the Leviathan asked curiously.

"Are you asking me my opinion on politics," Raise said raising one eyebrow. At Serafall's nod he sighed. "I think that it was caused by devils being devils. Instead of being satisfied with their lot in life they fell prey to their greed and decided that they could kidnap members of the Greek faction and no harm would come to them. In a way they were acting as the archetypal devil. Greedy, self-centred and entitled, if any of them come out of this alive I will be very surprised."

"They are important members of the remaining pillars," Serafall played devil's advocate. "Very important people will want them to survive. Besides," she said with a bitter smile. "There are so few of us left." She spoke the truth. Just after the devil civil war the total number of devils was only slightly over five thousand. Even many years after that the total population has still never broken ten thousand.

Raise just shook his head at that. "You won't have a choice. If Olympus turns against us we will not survive as a race. Despite all our power it would only take a few gods to descend to the underworld and in a few minutes our race's population will have dropped to the extent that it will be impossible to recover. There are no factions that will come to our aid and many factions that will seek to plunge a knife into the corpse. "No, it will not be willing but in the end the stolen peerage members will be returned and Olympus will be getting their heads."

Serafall frowned but didn't disagree. "How did you even know I was here by the way," she said trying to change the subject to a less morbid topic.

"Let's just say I have extra eyes about the mansion," Raise said mysteriously.

A few seconds passed and then the pieces were put together. "A familiar? I didn't see… oh," she said realising that she was talking to an illusionist. "What type of familiar do you have?" she asked curiously.

"A secret one," Raise replied and offered Serafall another biscuit. Suddenly he straightened up. "Shh," he whispered to Serafall and then Sera could feel a slight fluctuation of magic and when she looked around she realised that her body had turned invisible. Suddenly footsteps were heard and she stayed very still. "Master Raise," the voice of her least favourite maid rang out. "It's time for your lessons."

No reply came from the empty looking spot next to her and after a moment Grayfia Lucifuge stepped through the door. "Why did I know that he wasn't here?" the maid said wearily. "For somebody with his circumstance he can move very fast when he doesn't want to attend his lessons."

The maid shook her head and left the balcony and about ten seconds later the pair shimmered into existence. "Devil etiquette lessons," Raise said answering the devil girl's unasked question and causing the Leviathan to look sympathetically at him. "I'm leaving," he said standing up and brushing himself down. "Once again, feel free to drop by my garden anytime you want to."

With a last wave Raise shimmered from sight signalling the end of their chat. Serafall smiled back and stole a last handful of cookies before she took off from the balcony and soared away back to her own home.

xxx

Serafall was packing a picnic basket. Unlike the previous times that she had met with Raise and eaten all of his food this time she was prepared to bring her own share. She had seen him a few times over the past few months when she could spare time from her day job of trying to keep the multitudes of devils from rioting and doing something the species would not survive after four devil heads were handed over to Olympus. That series of events had eaten up all of her time and she had barely had enough time each day to devote to learning how to break illusions.

Whistling a merry tune Serafall summoned a teleportation circle beneath her and within a minute she had infiltrated the Gremory mansion. Circling the perimeter she ascended over the gate and slipped past the boundary magic. Accelerating through the skies she reached the garden balcony within half a minute. As per normal Raise sat there on his usual bench although this time he sat under shade courtesy of a tree that had grown in the middle of his garden.

This time however he didn't seem to have noticed her yet as he sat in his standard suit with his eyes closed. A devilish smile fell over Serafall's angelic face as she dropped down silently to the floor and then snuck slowly towards him.

"Hello Serafall," a familiar voice whispered in her ear causing her to whip around. When she turned back she saw a wide awake Raise stretching out his arms. "How are you coping after all the unrest in the underworld?"

Serafall scowled at the illusionist and then sighed and sat down throwing an arm over the shoulder of her younger friend. "Not great," she said sighing. "I'm just so busy. Being a Satan is no fun; don't let anybody tell you differently."

"I have no intention of ever acquiring that job," Raise said trying unsuccessfully to loosen the Leviathan's grip on his shoulder. "You are rapidly making me regret inviting you over Serafall," Raise said with annoyance in his voice.

"Many boys would have actually enjoyed that," Serafall said jokingly but she let go.

"Well go hug them then," Raise said. "Besides I haven't even gone through puberty yet. That stuff is kind of wasted on me."

"Really?" Serafall asked. "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm fourteen," Raise said causing Serafall to revisit her mental guess at the boy's age. "Next week," he continued. "Want to come to my birthday," he offered casually.

"Sure," Serafall replied. "Any there any requirements? Anything I need to bring?"

"Nah," Raise said. "It's just a small occasion. I haven't yet been officially introduced to devil society so they can't have a big thing."

"Ahh," Serafall said feeling as if she had stumbled someplace very uncomfortable. "That's a nice tree you have," she said dumbly. "Very leafy."

"Thanks," Raise said a large smile upon his face. "It's a pipal tree. At seeing Serafall's blank look he elaborated. "Under this very species of tree a bit over two thousand years ago, a man meditated on the ground. For forty-nine days he sat and on the last day he achieved enlightenment and became the very first Buddha."

"I've met some really powerful Buddhas," Serafall admitted nodding her head.

This wasn't the correct thing to say however as the only response that was given by Raise was him shaking his head. "I really do find the devil obsession with power weird," he said leaning back on the bench. "The prospect of true enlightenment and being freed from the suffering inherent in the material world and all you think about is whether it will make you hit harder."

Serafall looked at him slightly confused where he was going with this. "But then why do you practice your illusions. Don't you also want to become stronger?" she questioned.

"I don't practice them for that reason," Raise defended himself. "I use illusions because I like illusions. I have no interest in gaining power."

They sat in silence but the quiet was far from comfortable on Serafall's part. The youngest Gremory had just shattered the principal rule of being a devil. All devils sought power, whether political, via wealth or just power of the body and magic. For a devil to not seek supremacy was akin to a fish avoiding the water. It was concerning and actively dangerous in the underworld, a place of shifting loyalties where everybody was only out for themselves and their families. It was no wonder the Gremory family hadn't introduce him to the remainder of the underworld, it would be like throwing a sheep to the wolves; he would be eaten alive.

The Satan suddenly recalled a weight in her shirt pocket and Serafall came to a resolution. Reaching into her shirt she withdrew a box that really shouldn't have been able to fit in the small compartment. Raise watched curiously as she stuck her finger on the latch and let loose with an infinitesimal amount of energy causing the box to flip open. Scanning the contents of the box she quickly came to a decision and in one swift movement she withdrew a red pawn and held it aloft. Turning towards the young devil she watched him scrutinizing her and decided to make her appeal.

"Raise," she began. "You have a lot of potential. You can be great." She held the solitary chess piece aloft and the young Gremory's eyes tracked it. "I really enjoy talking to you and I think you're a great person. If you join my peerage you will never want for anything. Both money and p…" Serafall cut herself off. He had already stated that he had no interest in power and he wasn't yet through puberty so he couldn't be bribed by women. "Everything will be taken care of for you. All you have to do is lend me the strength of your illusions."

"No," Raise replied instantly cutting the confidence of the older devil.

"I can come back with a better speech," Serafall added hopefully but that hope was dashed by the shaking head of the Raise Gremory.

"You offered me nothing that I wanted," he explained. "In fact the one thing that I do want is not something that could be obtained by joining your peerage."

"And what is this thing?" Serafall asked in response to the mysterious statement. "Come on Raise," she said pouting. "I can't even try to get it for you if I don't know what it is."

The youngest Gremory leant back on the bench and adopted a thinking position with the knuckles of his right hand on his cheek. "The thing that I want is not something you can give to me. Try guessing what it is," he smiled invitingly.

Serafall thought on the question and for a few moments the garden was quiet in that time. She watched as butterfly's danced around the flowers that seemed to have doubled in volume and variety since she had last been here. A light string instrument started playing to disrupt the silence and Serafall started tapping her feet to the tune.

"Knowledge," she said after a while causing Raise to look at her. "Your idolisation of enlightenment, your spying on the guests of the Gremory mansion and you wanting a teacher as the reward for a victory. You want to learn about illusions because the endlessly fascinate you. In the end you, Raise Gremory, are a seeker after knowledge," Serafall said pointing at him.

"Incorrect," the younger Gremory said immediately.

"Oh come on," the former Sitri said. "You could at least give me some victory time before cutting me down."

"I find it best not to let misconceptions stand," he replied waving down the objections of the excitable Sitri. "Made any progress on trying to disrupt my illusions," Raise said changing the subject.

"Yeah," Serafall said. Shaping her magic she released it trying to brush away the illusionary reality. The world flickered and Serafall watched as Raise's right wing became twisted and mangled before his usual image snapped back into existence suddenly.

"Well done," the young Gremory clapped. "It was a perfectly adequate first attempt. Nevertheless you were miles away from getting all of my illusions."

Serafall moped at his words before she perked up. "Any hints," she said hopefully.

"You think I'm just going to help you win," Raise said shaking his head. "Alright one hint," he amended due to Serafall's pleading look. "You've started at the completely wrong place. In order to dispel illusions you must first be able to see through them. To first learn how to see through illusions you must learn to see the world as it is."

"And how long would that take me to learn," Serafall said as she contemplated his words.

"A few years," Raise said causing the Leviathan's head to whip around to look him in his eyes.

"You nearly got me," Serafall said chuckling as she shook her head.

"I don't need to get you," Raise defended himself. "Whether you listen to me or not you will fail this challenge. The only question is whether you will learn something from it."

"No," Serafall said her fist raised and an expression of determination on her face. "Just you watch Raise. I will pass this challenge."

"You've already failed," Raise said shaking his head. "Nevermind. Here," he said as he handed Serafall an envelope that suddenly appeared in his hand. "It's an official invitation to my party."

Serafall took the professional looking letter with ornate lettering and got the feeling that Raise had nothing to do with any of it. "How many people are going to be there?" she inquired.

"My parents, Sirzechs, Grayfia, the servants and you," Raise said listing them off. "Personally I would rather stay in my garden but I think my parents actually shed a tear when I mentioned I was bringing a friend. It was pretty awkward."

"You don't have a lot of friends do you," Serafall observed.

"Congrats Sera, you're number one of one," Raise replied dryly.

"Sera," the leviathan mused. "Okay but I'm going to call you Rei," she retorted.

"Let's not do that Serafall," the youngest Gremory said with a deadpan look upon his face.

"Too late, see you next week Rei," Sera Sitri said leaping off the tower. The last sight she saw was a visage of despair on her new friend.

xxx

Serafall was dressed in a well-tailored jacket and dress as she teleported to the gate of the Gremory mansion. Smiling at the incredulity of the gate guards as she presented a legitimate invitation she strolled into the front door and knocked on the door. Instead of the expected butler she was greeted by Sirzechs who donned a look of exasperation at seeing the bouncy Satan before him.

"This isn't really a good time Serafall," he said with weariness in his tone. "We're a bit busy at the moment."

"For the party," Serafall said causing Sirzhecs eyes to widen. "I know about that, I was invited," she explained as she presented her invitation.

Sirzhecs took it with a dazed look on his face. Rubbing his eyes he examined the invite stating that Serafall had a right to be there. "How in Go… Just how did the two of you become friends?" he said flabbergasted.

"He's a good musician," Serafall said. "Now lead me Sirzhecs, I have to give him my present," she said holding up a small rectangular box. Sirzhecs nodded at that and turned to lead Serafall into the hall. Stepping into the hall Serafall was assaulted by the smell of food.

A single musician sat at the side of the room playing a piano and regaling the small audience with cheery tunes; although Serafall got the distinct feeling that if Raise tried he could blow him out of the water. Servants bustled here and there but for once Grayfia was not among them as she sat in casual clothes at the table in deep discussion with Lady Gremory. Raise sat to the side occasionally engaging in awkward looking conversation with his father. For once he did not bear the illusion of repaired wings but kept them safely tucked away.

Right now the collective few who were actually present had turned towards Serafall, who was pre-emptively holding up her invitation, in astonishment. Slowly the eyes turned towards Raise who ignored them.

"Serafall you came," he observed calmly.

"Wouldn't miss it," the Leviathan replied. Walking forward she put the present on the table and slid it forward towards Raise. "Your gift."

Raise caught the box and neatly opened it pulling out a golden pocket watch; a recent invention in the human world. Flipping it open he examined the face of the timepiece before snapping it shut and sliding it into his pocket.

"Thank you Serafall," he said. "I will find some use in it."

"Hopefully it will allow you to attend your classes on time," Grayfia remarked from a few seats away with no optimism in her voice.

Raise didn't reply and instead beckoned Serafall to sit next to him. The food had not been served yet and the delicious smell of cooking meat wafted through the room causing Serafall's stomach to growl unnoticeably.

"So what do you normally do at one of these things?" Serafall whispered to the birthday boy. Usually for a high-class devils birthday hordes of other devils would be invited and they would host a large party displaying the wealth and prestige and they would use that opportunity to gain allies and revel in the attention. This small relatively quiet gathering was so unlike one of them that Serafall was a little lost.

"Nothing unusual," Raise said picking up a nearby glass containing a familiar orangey liquid. We usually have a little music, some food and then we go on an excursion somewhere. Last year we went to the familiar forest to get me my familiar. This year we're going to the Arena," Raise said with an almost unnoticeable amount of contempt in his voice.

Serafall eyes sparkled at the thought. The Arena was a relatively new invention of devil-kind. It consisted of a massive stadium modelled after the Colosseum. But the inside was far removed from the sand pit in which the Romans did their battle. The stage consisted of an artificially created territory which was modelled on very different landscapes by warping space. In the arena a system existed that prevented lethal damage being done to the competitors and it was not usual to see lethal spells being thrown at their opponents. The Arena was quickly becoming a place for devil-kind to settle their disputes and show off their strength and the strength of their peerages.

But judging by the look on Raise's face as well as his casual contempt of power he did not seem that excited. Suddenly Serafall remembered another point of the conversation. "Wait you never did show me your familiar Rei."

"Didn't I?" Raise said stalling. At Serafall's look of disappointment he relented. Raising his hand Serafall watched as a single yellowy butterfly flew and landed on the tips of his fingers. As the Satan made to speak more and more Lepidoptera flew in from the surrounding room and circled the youngest Gremory. "Behold my familiars Serafall," he said.

Serafall raised her hand and felt some of the insects alight upon her skin. The tingling of their feet gave proof that they were real, physical beings that had bonded with her friend.

"They're not illusions," she remarked to Raise as the young Gremory relaxed in his chair raising his orange juice so that the insects could also partake.

"I'm not allowed to cast illusions on my birthday," he replied with a relaxed air. "I do find it nice to just relax and observe reality sometimes," he said in response to Serafall's shocked look.

"How did they ever get you to stop casting illusions," Serafall whispered to him under her breath.

"They are my parents," Raise said with an air of quiet dignity. "Besides I got an advantage out of it also. As long as I obey this rule I never have to ever meet Zekram Bael again."

Serafall nodded her mind connecting the dots. Zekram Bael was one of the most respected devils in the underworld. In addition he was said to have a fixation on both maintaining the strength and purity of devils. She could easily think of a thousand ways that the initial meeting could have gone horribly. Looking at her younger friend she didn't even know if he could use the power of destruction and she didn't know how to politely ask.

Suddenly she was saved from her thoughts by the smell of cooked meat reaching its pitch and the Gremory servants bustled into the room carrying the large carcass of an animal coated dipped in a thick brown sauce. The sounds of conversation died down and in less than a minute the meat was expertly carved and served onto the plates of the diners followed by buttered and steamed potatoes and a variety of perfectly steamed vegetables.

Conversation slowed down as the collective devils dug into the food. Sirzechs joined them sitting on Serafall's other side. He made small chat as the three of them watched the butterflies. The flapping of their wings was mesmerising and as Serafall watched she noticed something. Every single one of the butterflies had a pair of blue spots with black centres on their wings that resembled eyes, or more accurately a specific pair of eyes. The effect was quite creepy once you noticed it.

"Raisy," Sirzechs said suddenly from next to Serafall. "You may want to put a lid on the butterfly activity. "You're scaring off your guests again."

"Actually I find the butterflies quite cute," Serafall lied with a smile on her face.

"You hear that Raisy," Sirzechs said leaning past Serafall to pat the younger devil on the shoulder. "She's a keeper all right."

Raise shook his head in exasperation but he smiled as he did so. He waved his hands and the butterflies exited the room and dispersed in all directions. He bit into his dinner ignoring any contemplative glances that were thrown his way by those overhearing.

The rest of the meal proceeded smoothly besides Serafall accidentally imbibing a cherry cocktail and accidentally spraying the concoction over the face of the birthday boy. Once the main course had been consumed; a large chocolate cake was brought forward and divided amongst the guests. The assembly picked at their cake and chatted while they waited for the time to arrive so that they could depart to the arena and even the usually stoic Raise seemed a lot more lively than usual.

But soon enough the hour arrived and it was Zeoticus Gremory who eventually got everybody moving when the hour struck four. A standard sized permanent teleportation circle was used to transport the assembly directly into the reserved box. First the parents of the birthday boy went through and then Sirzechs and his wife and last of all Serafall and Raise shared the final trip through the teleportation circle.

The sight that greeted them was of the typical opulence that permeated devil design. A room made of white marble with plush carpets and finery that had one of the walls replaced by a balcony that extended so that the devils could better see the competitors in the arena. At this point there were already two devils that were skirmishing in the arena, most likely devils that had not attained fame or popularity.

Serafall drifted over to the edge and set her sights on the duelling pair below. No magic was used in the duel but the two of them had decent physical condition and were clearly not holding back in their attempts to harm the other. Raise joined her a second later and silently observed the duel with a faint hint of distaste on his face that he couldn't really hide from eyes tracked the pair of duelling devils for a few moments until their thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the Lucifer.

"The one in the black armour is going to win," he said as his eyes joined the two pairs.

"It seems so," Raise agreed causing Serafall to inspect the fight more closely herself. While both fighters were proficient in their choice of weaponry, a mace for the black armoured one and a sword for the brown armoured one, there was a certain efficiency of movement that spoke for Mr. Black armour that didn't seem present in his opponent.

"I didn't know you knew anything about fighting," Serafall said to Raise watching Sirzhechs shake his head out of the corner of her eye.

"I don't," Raise replied back stiffly. "It's in their body language. To put it simply Yellow initially looks more confident as opposed to Black's, more cautious demeanour. However Black is not submitting to pressure despite being on the defensive which shows he has experience. This leads me to believe that Yellow's self-assurance is simply due to not knowing he's outclassed."

"Or he could have studied Black and came to the conclusion that he would be able to beat him," Serafall argued for the sake of arguing.

"Do you know that people keep trying to mug Sirzechs whenever he goes to the human world?" Raise said causing the crimson haired Satan to wave his hands in a feeble attempt at denial. "That is because my brother looks like a fruitcake to the casual eye. I can guarantee you that Yellow's skills of observation at its best would be considered casual."

Raise and Sirzechs observations held out as within the next few seconds a mistimed lunge caused Black to disarm his opponent of his blade and thrust his own through Yellow's chest. A polite clap rippled through the stadium as they were both taken off and the next pair were announced. This pair seemed to mix it up and spells as well as more classic fighting. This time both Serafall and Sirzechs predicted the correct winner while Raise didn't.

This continued throughout the event with the eventual tally at the end being Sirzechs first, then Serafall with Raise very close behind the two. After the last two were taken off the field the announcer came on and informed the crowds that the main even would take place within the next half hour.

"Wasn't that exciting Raisy," Sirzechs said with a small amount of hope in his voice. "We actually had a few strong competitors today."

"They could both possess the unparalleled power of the Ourobourus Dragon and I still wouldn't find the act of hitting each other to be one which is worth much of my time," Raise said with a deadpan look on his face.

"Yup that's the response I expected," Sirzechs said. "And speaking of dragons I almost forgot to give you your present." The Lucifer withdrew his hand from his pockets and threw a wooden dragon towards his younger brother which Raise plucked out of the air.

"You really like your dragons," Serafall said patting his back.

"Oh Raisy has always loved dragons," Sirzechs spoke up. "His entire room is covered by the things."

"That's pretty cute," Serafall said smiling.

"I know right," Sirzechs said with a look of contentment on his face.

"If you've had enough fun mocking me," Raise said slipping the blue dragon figurine into his pockets. I believe that the match of the evening is about to begin."

"Are you finally getting into it, Rei?" Serafall asked.

"Hardly," Raise said. "But I believe that it is a fight between a Bael and a Phenex and quite personally I would take any opportunity to see the Bael get put down."

"I'm going to support the Bael. There's really no way that anybody with the Power of Destruction wouldn't be able to bypass the Phenex's 'immortality'," Sirzechs said with a massive amount of mocking when he mentioned the Phenex's supposed immortality.

"I'm going to side with Raise on this one," Serafall said. She also had no love for the Bael clan.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is," Sirzechs said with a grin.

"Deal," Serafall said with Raise nodding. Terms were agreed as the starting siren went off.

xxx

"Wow Sirzechs you sure are unlucky," Serafall said as she walked out of the teleportation circle with her wallet heavier than before.

"When you have took the devil's name it seems that you missed out on taking his luck," Raise said as he counted out the notes.

The Crimson Satan didn't respond and instead just shook his head. "I can't believe I bet on that unskilled amateur," he ground out. "Grayfia is not going to be happy with me."

"What am I not going to be happy about now," the voice of the ice maid appeared from behind Sirzechs like a sudden winter's breeze causing the Lucifer to shiver. She glanced over and noticed both Serafall and Raise standing and watching with no small amusement. "We will talk about this later."

"Are you ever out of the dog box Sirzechs," Raise said as his wife walked away. "I have to go feed my butterflies. Thank you for attending my party Serafall," he said as he slightly bowed. A snap of his fingers later and he disappeared. Serafall turned to look at Sirzechs who was looking somewhere else. A few seconds later he exhaled and turned to face the Leviathan.

"Okay, he's gone," Sirzechs said.

"You've learned how to see through his illusions," Serafall observed. "Is there a special trick or technique you need to know."

"I can't see through them," Sirzechs rebutted. "None of my family can. If you specifically train and focus on your ability to sense magic you can sort of get a feel where he is but as for seeing through them..." Sirzechs shrugged. "Don't you find it quite funny," he said with a slight trace of bitterness in his voice. "Power over illusions that can fool two Satans and yet the wielder is the closest thing to a pacifist that you can find in the underworld with absolutely no desire for power at all. My parents are at their wits end. They love him but they have no idea what to do with him." The Super-devil turned towards the only female Satan with gratitude all over his face. "Thank you for being his friend Serafall."

Serafall blushed at the sincere thanks. "It wasn't all altruistic," she said. "He interested me and…"

"You've offered him a spot in your peerage, didn't you?" Sirzech's said. "How did that go?"

"He turned me down," Serafall said pouting. "Hey do you know what he would accept in exchange for being part of my peerage."

"Nothing," Sirzechs answered back immediately startling the former Sitri. "There is absolutely nothing that you can give him that will force him to willingly join your peerage. You may as well give up on that Serafall. Now while Raise has gone to rearrange his dragons why don't we have a drink for old times sake."

"You just want to avoid a scolding from your wife," Serafall accused but there was a definite twitch on her lips.

"Do you hear me denying it," Sirzechs said as he headed into the kitchen with the Leviathan following him.

xxx

"Today is the day," Serafall said as she stared in the mirror. "Today is the day that I will beat Raise Gremory." It had been a year since she had challenged him to a contest of illusions. "Honestly there was no real material benefit for her to winning. Senjutsu and Youjutsu masters were rare but hiring one for Raise's benefit would still not set her fortune back that much. In addition while she was interested in illusions she did not have the time to improve them to the level require to be useful in combat.

In the end the reason that she had devoted so much time into learning how to break the illusion was that she wanted to prove her abilities to her opponent and to establish a friendly rivalry with a person who was rapidly becoming a trusted companion to her. She ran a comb through her hair and completed her last morning ritual. She contemplated the rules as she took out a pair of pink ribbons from the cupboard and tied her hair into two pigtails. She had to eliminate all of Raise's illusions. He would not inform her how many illusions that he had cast. She had an unlimited amount of time in which to destroy the illusions but when she declared that all the illusions were gone she would either pass or fail depending on whether there were still additional illusions.

A teleportation circle appeared beneath her and she instantly appeared at Raise's garden in the hopes of preventing him from setting up any further illusions. But the garden appeared to be empty. Serafall's brow scrunched at the thought. Raise Gremory was never late. Whenever she arrived at the Garden the young man was always waiting for her there. He especially wouldn't be late on the day of their contest. Taking a deep breath she took Sirzech's advice and sensed the magic around her. Most of it was low level but there was a slight spike that she wouldn't have noticed without the training she had done on detecting magic.

Turning around she expelled her magic linking with the illusion and with great concentration tried to get it to match the frequency of her opponent's magic. The trick according to the books she read was to get the illusion to resonate with your own magic before you tore it down and results spoke for themselves as Raise's method of concealment broke and the youngest Gremory flickered into being in front of the Leviathan's eyes. Raise said nothing in response to his illusion being dispelled and merely handed Serafall the glass of orange juice in his hand, which the Satan gladly accepted, before he sat down on his bench.

The competition was on and Serafall had no intention in taking the younger devil lightly. Firstly Serafall focused on the flowers. While she knew that Raise devoted a lot of time to watering and planting them she also knew that not all of them were real. Her attempt was initially unsuccessful and she came to the conclusion that it was a great deal harder than any of the previous times that she had tried to dispel any of Raise's illusions. Coming to the conclusion that Raise had previously gone easy on her she turned to look at her friend and saw him smile at her and give her one thumb up which only had the effect of ticking her off.

Redoubling her efforts Serafall increased and decreased the frequency of her magic trying to get a hold of the illusive illusion but it wasn't easy. She could feel the magic but its frequency seemed to shift like up and down as she focused it. Pushing her concentration to the utmost she sent several waves of fluctuating magic at the same time trying to overpower the illusion. This was possibly the least efficient way of ever dispelling an illusion but it appeared to work. The flowers first wavered and then the illusion flickered before it shattered like glass revealing a less impressive garden with a smaller variety of flowers.

Serafall turned back to Raise with a smug expression on her face but the young devil was ignoring her and instead gazing at the reduced state of his garden with a noticeably forlorn look upon his face. Serafall suddenly got the impression that what she was doing was not going to endear herself to her friend. Shaking her head she resolved to get it over with and then deal with any fallout later. Turning her attention back to the garden she scanned for more illusions by trying to detect any surges in magic but that quickly turned out to be useless.

After that came the trial and error. She threw her magic at the tree, the walls (they were a different colour, Raise himself; (this revealed some sandwhiches which Raise noticeably didn't offer her). Eventually Serafall was about to give up and the words were partially out of her mouth when she stopped. She noticed a distinct absence of sound that permeated the garden. Summoning an icicle she dropped it and watched as it silently clattered against the floor. "An auditory illusion," she thought with a frown across her face. Every book she had read on the subject had said that illusions based on sound were both harder to cast and harder to dispel than their visual counterparts.

According to every book that she had read on the subject auditory illusions could not be dispelled by larger amounts of magic but rather a greater ability to emulate the wavelength of the illusionist's magic. If she didn't get the precise frequency her magic would just phase through Raise's like water through air. She summoned up her immense magical reserves and got to work.

Failure after failure resulted but Serafall only grew in determination. While she never was able to achieve Sirzech's or Ajuka's control over their magic she still was no slouch in the precision department. You had to be when a single spell of yours was able to destroy a battlefield. Mess up your magic or put too much in and suddenly you have just as many dead on your side than the opponents. That was not something that the only female Satan could stomach handling and so she had always done the extra amount of practice necessary so that she could be absolutely certain that the situation could never come to pass.

The method to dispel illusions by matching the wavelength of the illusion required more control than she had ever demanded from herself but it was not out of her reach. As the seconds ticked into minutes and the minutes rolled over into hours Serafall inched closer and closer to dispelling the illusion. Finally after a tremendous effort for a second the frequency of the illusion matched the frequency of Serafall's magic and a million little sounds reached Serafall's ear.

"I got all your Illusions," Serafall said triumphantly feeling a little drained due to the workout.

"You lose," Raise replied handing Serafall another glass of orange juice.

"What, there is no way. There are absolutely no illusions in the garden," Serafall said. She took a sip from the orange juice as she glared at the young Gremory daring him to prove her wrong.

"Would you like to see which illusion you were not able to dispel, Sera?" Raise asked.

The female Satan nodded and scanned the courtyard eagerly as Raise raised his hand and very slowly and carefully snapped his fingers. For Serafall who was expecting maybe a minor change what happened next was a nasty surprise. Her mouth was instantly flooded by the hated cherry flavour and she spat out the juice that she had not yet swallowed.

Coughing and hacking Serafall glanced down at the traitorous orange juice when the thought hit her. "How did you do that?" she asked dumbstruck. "No book I've ever read said anything about taste based illusions."

"I've told you before Sera," Raise said. "I create my own illusions. Just because the previous ones were close enough to the ones you occasionally read about doesn't mean that they all will be."

"I lost," Serafall admitted bitterly. "I'll bring you your Senjutsu teacher within the week," Serafall said. "I've already had my eye on one." Left unsaid by her was that she intended to hire a Senjutsu teacher if he lost as well, as a gracious gift for the victor and to enable his illusions to grow in power. She still had her eye on him for his peerage and the combination of bribery and a genuine will to see him get stronger meant that she would have long ago hired a teacher for him if he had asked.

"There is no need," Raise said. "I would not have kept my promise if you had won."

"Wow," Serafall said dully. "You really don't let me get any time to catch my thoughts do you." For a devil to break their given word would mark them forever no matter the number of centuries that had passed. A broken oath had driven many devil families extinct or into exile. To proclaim that he wouldn't have kept his word was a new kind of madness to add to the multitudes he already had displayed.

"So when should I start teaching you," Raise said baffling the Satan.

"Wait slow down a bit," Serafall said holding her arms out in front of her. "Did you just offer to teach me when you said you wouldn't if I won?"

"Exactly," Raise said holding his finger up and pointing to the Leviathan. "I wouldn't teach you illusions if I was forced to but I will gladly offer to teach you any illusions that I know."

Serafall stared in incredulity at the younger devil that was currently availing himself from his platter of sandwiches. Her mind worked in overdrive until it clicked and all the puzzles fell into place.

"Freedom," she said staring at him as the truth dawned upon her. "That's the one thing that you want more than anything. You don't want anybody to be able to tell you what to do."

Raise didn't respond for a moment before he dropped the sandwich in his hand and turned towards Serafall. "That's a very poor understanding of what the word freedom means," he said seriously. "To be truly physically and mentally free is to be unable to be constrained by one's situations, one's society, one's own instincts and even one's own body," he said while flexing his warped wing.

"But you could gain all of that by getting strong," Serafall protested.

"And how well is that working out for you?" Raise said raising an eyebrow. "How much free time have you had since the latest disaster?"

Serafall winced and wished that he was talking about the Olympus situation. It was a pretty futile wish as she was well aware as by now Raise would almost certainly be cognizant of the newest incident that got them in trouble with the Youkai. A couple Nekomata had been killed by a member of a peerage belonging to a well-known pureblood devil and all of the Youkai were not happy. It had actually had the effect of uniting the Japanese and the Chinese Youkai against the devils and while they were by no means the strongest faction they were allied with the Shinto faction as well as some of the Chinese gods. It was when Serafall had heard rumours of them making overtures with heaven that she had to indulge in some hardcore diplomacy. Serious concessions had again been made and Serafall almost prayed out of relief that the Shinto faction did not get on at all with the Olympians.

"Do you see what I'm talking about?" Raise said his voice gaining volume. "When you gain power, people give you duties or an image is permanently welded to you that you are always forced to fit. Not to mention that every day you are forced to train to retain that power and are forced to always be on the alert for people who want to usurp your position. No," he said shaking his head in disgust. "Lusting after strength is like forging your own chains and willingly becoming a slave to power."

They both fell silent after that impassioned speech and Serafall realized for the first time in their friendship that she was seeing the real face of Raise for the first time. The two sat in silence for a while before the younger devil got up. "I've got stuff to do," he said not even bothering to think up a good excuse.

He turned around to leave but was halted by the older devils voice. "Hey," Serafall said. "I should have your new tutor by Monday. Why don't we have a session together?"

Raise was still for a moment. "I'd like that," he said with genuine gratitude in his voice. And then he walked inside leaving Serafall standing alone on the balcony.

xxx

"Remember to breathe deeply," a childish voice came out of the mouth of a woman who was anything but. Standing over five feet with two black ears that jutted out from her equally dark hair Lilika, a nekomata woman and a friend of Serafall, stretched her arms into the air emphasizing her sizable breasts. She wore a tight pair of sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt and sat on the floor in a strange parody of a yoga pose.

Serafall watched from the sidelines occasionally glancing at a piece of paper that she held in her hands. On it were instructions from Raise on how to see through illusions and Serafall was currently trying them out. Oddly enough there was no complex magic involved but more of a perspective shift that had to take place and Serafall found herself trying to attain the proper mindset while gazing at the real or imaginary landscape ahead of her.

Raise sat on the floor with his right leg jutting out at an awkward angle. He was trying to learn how to become one with the world, something that was supposed to be utterly possible for a devil, and learn Senjutsu. Senjutsu was not something that Lilika had already been hired to teach but since Raise had quickly devoured all of her lessons in crafting illusions and swiftly adapted her Youjutsu illusions into his devil magic the Nekomata had decided to reward her promising student and teach him something that he couldn't easily master. As a side-effect Serafall had to relearn how to destroy internal based illusions that comprised the bulk of Youjutsu techniques.

"Very good Raise," Lilika said as she moved behind the young Gremory placing his hands on her shoulders causing Serafall to lift her head and watch the two of them intently. While devils were not naturally predisposed towards Senjutsu Raise was not naturally predisposed towards being a devil and it seemed as if his unique personality allowed him to be able to better attain the state of mind to achieve the Sage arts. Serafall was not present for all of their lessons but according to both him and Lilika he had twice in the last six months of teaching obtained it, only to back out claiming that the malevolence had almost overtaken him.

"Not today Lilika," Raise said slowly standing accepting a hand from both Lilika and Serafall. "I'm going to have to take a break for a while. Deal with some stuff. Then I'll resume the lessons. Is that okay?" he addressed the cat woman.

"That's okay Raise," Lilika said but a small movement in her lips said that she wasn't very pleased. "You're by far my best student ever," she said smiling coyly. "Maybe one day I will give you a reward.

"My success in this venture is its own reward," Raise said and snapped his fingers causing the illusion over his wing and leg to be reapplied.

"And some great success it has been," Serafall said thinking of the things she had also learnt. She could now see through Raise's illusions unless he was specifically hiding them as well as cast her own illusions that she had tried on a few annoying devils to humorous effect. The one thing that she could do without was that cradle robbing cat getting a bit too familiar with her friend. Serafall shook her head at the thought. She had never met a nekomata that wasn't a pervert and Lilika had done nothing to change that point of view. But she was still a good friend and one of the few nekomata that would actually work with a devil after the latest unpleasantness.

"Let's go out for dinner tonight," the only non-devil among them said swinging her arms over the pair's shoulders.

"Serafall's treat," Raise replied instantly shifting the responsibility of paying to his best friend.

"Only if I get to choose the restaurant," Serafall conceded but not before adding that concession. She was well aware that Lilika would have chosen an all fish restaurant and Raise would eat literal trash if not stopped, his prodigious illusions making creating a taste even greater than the finest of meals. "And I know just the place. Raise put on your good suit, I know you have one, and meet me outside in thirty minutes. Lilika," she stopped for a moment contemplating the nekomata in front of her. "Just try not to be yourself." Ignoring Lilika's indignant hiss she turned around and vaulted over the balcony.

Forty-five minutes later the three of them stepped into the lobby of a high-class devil restaurant. It was a relatively new addition to the underworld and served recipes that were created by the humans just as most new enterprises seemed to be nowadays. Devils tended towards a greater creative sterility than the shorter lived species to the extent that despite all their many natural advantages their arts and technology actually lagged behind.

A waiter took their coats giving both the nekomata and the cripple a slightly dismissive look that vanished at the sight of Serafall Leviathan standing in front of him. She frowned but both Raise and Lilika ignored the rudeness and simply sat at the table. Raise had his wings hidden but his bad leg was on full display and the female devil noticed with some aggravation that several devils gave him a contemptuous look.

"You shouldn't concern yourself about what the public thinks about you Sera," the younger devil said picking up on her mood. "Societal expectation is just another of the many shackles that prevent you from achieving freedom."

"Raise is right Serafall," Lilika spoke up from next to him. "Who cares what a bunch of prickly old devils think. Not me, that's for sure."

Serafall frowned buy sat down and was presented with a menu by another one of the many waiters that littered the floor. Raise and Lilika got matching menus which the two took to perusing with furious intensity. Lilika was first in choosing her meal, flipping to the seafood menu and eventually picking raw fish. Raise took his time and eventually chose some grilled meat dish. Serafall ordered her regular and the three of them sat back in wait for the various waiters to provide their sustenance.

"This looks like quite a elegant restaurant Serafall," Lilika spoke up. "Just how much do you have to pay to get a table at a place like this?"

"My family has always had a table here," Serafall said. "Well for the last few years that it had existed. They were involved in providing the capital and even now we still own a portion of the restaurant."

"That's so cool," Lilika said enthusiastically. "Isn't that cool Raise?"

The younger devil merely shrugged his shoulders. "Not my type of place," he admitted.

"Stop being antisocial," Serafall teased him.

"I'm not antisocial," Raise said defending himself. "I am merely selective in whom I choose to become my friends. It is hardly my fault that devil society is full of both vultures and leeches."

"He really does love us," Lilika said almost succeeding in hugging the slippery young devil.

"And speaking of vultures…" Serafall began her sentence as she saw another devil approach her.

"Greetings Lady Leviathan," the handsome looking man said respectfully as he approached the seated three. With barely a pause he swiped a chair and seated himself at the table among the three of them. "If I had known you were attending tonight I would have worn something nicer than these dusty old things," he said gesturing to his clothes that looked like the height of fashion to all the observers.

The devil had blonde hair that was neatly combed and cropped just above his shoulders. A wolfish smile sat upon a chiselled face and below a neatly trimmed moustache. He wore a look of great confidence upon his face and his rose coloured eyes were firmly fixed upon the Satan of the group.

"Severean Agares," Serafall replied with only the slightest bit of weariness in his voice. "What brings you here today?"

"To this restaurant, the delicious food," the man said smiling at her. "To this table, to enjoy the pleasure of your company. Do you come here often? I had no idea you enjoyed Chinese food."

"It's Japanese you pillock," Raise said stopping the man's speech dead. "Before you start throwing out compliments make sure you know what you're talking about."

The man blinked at Raise's rude interruption but swiftly collected himself. "And who might you be," he said scanning the young Gremory up and down. To his credit he only took a swift look at his deformity before focusing again on his face.

"Raise Gremory," Raise Gremory said offering no further information besides the basics.

"A strong family," Severean said. "Tell me why I haven't heard of you before today. I would think that the Gremory's would have been proud to announce a new heir."

"I lack the patience to properly perform the duties of an heir," Raise said bluntly enough that the other devil was taken back. "My temperament does not allow me to deal with idiots with a false sense of importance that enjoy playing word games over trivial things."

"Okay," Severean said looking as if he was chewing on his words. "What are your intentions towards Serafall?"

"She's my best friend," Raise replied instantly causing Serafall to use a bit of magic to cool down her cheeks. "I would say my intentions toward her are to make sure her quality of life is maintained."

"And you know what is best for her," Severean asked sceptically.

"Not you," Raise said his blue eyes glitteringly dangerously. "You have rudely interrupted our conversation and overstayed your welcome. I am not a violent person but I will only ask you once to leave."

The Agares and the Gremory faced off against each other, their eyes boring into the others skulls. Eventually the table invader let out a chuckle. "What do you know about the Agares bloodline," he said as his laughter subsided.

"Time," Raise replied and for a moment Serafall could almost detect a note of reverence in his voice.

"Yup time," Severean said smiling. "It's a mysterious force that only allows us to draw the faintest conclusions about its true nature. Even the humans have not yet figured out how it works properly," he said ruefully. "I have by far the strongest abilities of the Agares in memory," he continued with no boasting in his voice. "I have trained for hundreds of hours and immersed myself in the very nature of time in an attempt to truly understand." At this point Raise was nodding along with him. "So let me tell you this; I have seen that you and I will fight in the future and on that day I will either get to witness your original talent or the true power of the talent that you have painstakingly cultivated. If you fail, you will die. If you succeed, I will die," he said to the shock of those around him. "Until then," he said seriously. "I will just have to work harder to make Sera fall in love with me."

"Like hell," the Satan yelled disturbing those around her. "I don't have time for your bullshit Sev."

"She called me Sev," the man said clutching his cheeks looking totally different from the image of nobility that he had portrayed. "I will see you at the ball Serafall," the man said before dashing off.

"What an absolute fruitcake," Serafall said shaking her head. "Are you okay Raise," she said with some concern as she watched her friend stare blankly at the wall."

"Fine," he muttered. He took a deep breath. "I'm just fine," he said. "I was just thinking about something."

"You should relax," Lilika suddenly spoke up from her long silence. In an instant she was behind him and had her hands on his back. Serafall watched with amusement and a slight amount of envy as she managed to pacify the younger devil with rhythmic massaging motions along his muscles. This continued until the food arrived and by that point the solitary Gremory was bonelessly face down on the table with only the occasional moan to inform of his continued state of existence.

Serafall watched this state of affairs with amusement as the waiters brought their dishes. Lilika eventually gave up on kneading his tissue and returned to her seat to eat the raw fish that had been rolled into cylinders. Raise lifted himself off of the table giving the two of them a death glare before picking up a pair of the twigs that Serafall had been informed were called chopped sticks.

"That's a very interesting fellow," Raise said as he plucked a piece of meat off the grill that was presented. "It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover."

"He basically threatened you Raise," Serafall said. "Should I try doing something about it."

"Even if you could," Raise said. "He wasn't threatening me but merely making a prophecy. A prophecy that I have no intention of following. Really Serafall you should know me better by now than to believe that I would listen to anybody telling me what to do."

"Was your original talent the power of destruction," Lilika asked and there was a physical silence that fell over the room that Serafall recognized as a silencing illusion that Raise occasionally broke out. He glared at the nekomata for a few moments before he sighed.

"Yes it is," he said with a final tone to his voice.

The older pair looked at each other and decided that it was best to let the topic go for now.

"So Lilika," Serafall started. "Do you think I could also learn Senjutsu."

"Nope," Lilika said covering her fish with some sauce and then popping it into her mouth. At seeing Serafall's annoyed look she elaborated on her statement. "Senjutsu is super rare. Only some species of youkai can do it normally."

"Like Nekomata," Serafall said.

"Like Nekoshou," Lilika corrected. "Normal nekomata can't really access Senjutsu, only the subspecies can. I also think that some kitsune can also use it and I know of a couple monkey youkai that can also. Besides that I know of nobody else."

"Then why did you see fit to teach Raise," Serafall whispered.

"He was interested and picked up on my use," the now revealed Nekoshou said. "I honestly thought he would fail."

"Senjutsu requires a good critical eye," Raise spoke up and it looked as if he wasn't in such a poor mood any more. "To be more specific it requires you to see the natural energy of the world around you. To accept that it exists and it is different from your own energy but that it is also very much the same." Raise pursed his lips. "I'm explaining it poorly," he said giving up. "Maybe when I get a better understanding myself I'll be able to advise you better."

"That's a pretty good description Raise," Lilika said. "You'll be a good sage in time, I just know it."

"Thank you Lilika," Raise said finishing up the last of his food. "I know I will be."

Serafall smiled as she watched the two of them chat and discreetly summoned the waiter to pay the bill. She enjoyed moments like this. Hopefully things would continue like this forever.

xxx

"What do you mean when you say that you and Lilika are no longer talking," Serafall said with shock apparent in her voice. She hadn't met up with the pair for the past few weeks as the murder of a few pure-blooded devils had been causing her to run damage control. It had grown worse when the murders were traced back to a stray devil that had killed her master and spent weeks masquerading as him. This event had tensions rising and it was no surprise that a few more strays had popped up as a result. Eying the young devil sipping orange juice in his garden she contemplated the fact that she might have been gone too long.

"We haven't been on speaking terms for the last two weeks Serafall," Raise said sipping his juice. "You really do take your work to seriously. You haven't even seen how my garden is doing."

Looking around Serafall did just that and acknowledged the superiority of Raise's current garden compared to its prior iteration. The flowers had multiplied and encircled the entire space with a bounty of colours and smells. The grass was neat and uniform and the tree had sprouted branches that covered the area in shade and sprouted small purple fruit from them. Almost absentmindedly she picked a fruit off the tree and bit into it savouring the flavour of the fig.

"I will admit your garden is really coming along well Raise," Serafall said crunching down on the fruit. "But try not to change the topic. What exactly happened between you and Lilika?"

Raise sighed. "It started about a week after you left. While Lilika has always been a bit flirty as soon as you were not in the picture her ardour increased. Eventually despite the fact that I had made clear that I wasn't interested she offered to teach me Bouchujutsu, also known as the bedroom method. I turned her down and things got a bit heated. We both said things and took it a bit too far and when the dust had cleared our bond had irreversibly shattered."

"Wow," said Serafall trying to think of a more appropriate word to convey her surprise. "Just wow." She could actually see Lilika trying to do something like that. Despite his crippled limbs Raise had obtained both the Gremory good looks and had powerful illusions, an almost irresitable combination for the nekomata. She was a bit surprised that Raise had turned her down but the young devil never acted in a way that she could comfortably predict. She idly wondered what it was that was said that was so bad that caused them to never want to see each other again but decided that she didn't want to know.

The pair of devils sat down on the bench in silence. Serafall was contemplating the good times that the three of them had spent in the garden and Raise merely sat in silence slowly sipping at his orange juice. In two weeks' time it would have been the anniversary of when the lessons first began and Serafall had planned to do something else special for that time, although now she found herself needing to scrap those plans.

"Would you like me to find a new teacher for Senjutsu," Serafall offered. Despite being not part of the original deal it would be a shame to have Raise's lessons stop here. She had long ago given up on ever recruiting him as a peerage member but her pride for her friend's development would not allow his powers to languish half grown.

"There is no need," Raise said. "I have already learnt Senjutsu." At Serafall's look of disbelief he elaborated. "I had already learnt how to tap into the energy around me six whole months ago. The remainder of the next six months was just learning how to conquer my own rage."

"What rage?" Serafall asked bluntly. "You don't get angry about anything."

"Not all of us wear our hearts on our sleeves," Raise stated. "I've always had a lot of anger, at society, at other devils, at my own family sometimes." He shook his head and a smile formed on his face. "Now I've stopped caring. I figured out that by caring about somebodies actions or opinions it gives them control over you. I took away their control and finally achieved Senjutsu." With a snap of his fingers Serafall watched with amazement as the flowers in his garden bloomed and grew further.

"That doesn't sound very healthy," Serafall said tearing her eyes away from the flowers and focusing on him. "Everybody needs to care about something."

Raise just shook his head. "Ever since I've stopped caring I've been happy," he said crossing his arms over his chest. "You've never known how it's like when all the little aggravations form into hate. You don't know what it's like to feel the urge to destroy bubble under your skin. You don't know what it's like to want to turn your surroundings and everybody in them into dust and ash."

"I do know that Raise," Serafall defended. "It's called living. Every day I have to deal with my parents trying to get me hitched or the entire populace causing troubles that give me weeks of paperwork. You just have to learn to cope with these things. You can't just cut out all the annoyances in your life; dealing with those little annoyances is what makes you a devil." Serafall thought for a moment. "Besides you get things out of it as well."

"Really," Raise said sceptically.

"You know you do," Serafall said. "You get food and shelter, your garden, all these luxuries that you enjoy."

Raise frowned for a moment and then with a bit of concentration Serafall watched as he tapped his foot and a tree started to grow. "Hmm," he said contemplating. "I'm sure that I could create some form of shelter. My garden goes wherever I go and I honestly partake in fewer luxuries than you believe I do."

"What brought this on Rei," Serafall said with no small amount of concern. "This is all coming out of left field and I'm getting quite concerned."

"My parents are talking about a marriage contract," Raise admitted after a moment of silence.

"To whom," Serafall replied her throat feeling dry.

"I have no idea," Raise stated. A swarm of butterflies appeared from the ether and alighted upon his shoulders. "My little friends overheard them speaking about the possibility and considering canidates." Raise shook his head. "Still it turned out to be a good thing in the end. That conversation was the tipping point that finally convinced me to let go of my wrath towards others and the very next day was the day that I achieved Senjutsu."

"Is marriage really that bad?" Serafall asked with a bit of apprehension in her voice.

"Marriage is the worst prison I can possibly fathom," Raise said without a moment's hesitation. "It's a hellish penitentiary where you are trapped and forced by your 'partner' to conform to their expectations. The only way that I will ever be married is posthumously."

"Wow," Serafall said. All other words failed her as she digested the statements that were put forward by her younger friend. She had her fair share of marriage contracts put forward by opportunistic devils that were either awed by her power or desired the use of her status and while the prospect often made her feel uncomfortable she had nowhere near the detest for the practice that the younger Gremory had.

"Do you want to go to the Revolution Jubilee with me," Serafall said spontaneously. Raise turned towards her giving her his blankest look yet and after a while Serafall blushed in realization. "I meant as friends," she clarified. The Revolution Jubilee was an event that was held every twenty five years since the end of the devil civil war. The reason why Raise had given her such an utterly deadpan look was that it was also the event at which a lot of lovers were announced for the first time and thus had gained a reputation for being a place to which you would bring your significant other.

"I don't know Sera," Raise said reluctantly. "I'm not exactly enamoured with the idea of devil nobility right now."

"But if you don't come it will be boring. I will have to endure devils politics the whole night."

"Then you should just resign," Raise said bluntly. "But fine I'll come. What is the date?"

xxx

"Two weeks fly by quite fast," Serafall said waiting in the lobby of the Bael hall. As one of the most influential houses they were the ones that had the honour of hosting the grand event despite the ambiguous status as to the actual side in the civil war.

Multiple devils had arrived to talk to her and offered to invite her inside but they had been politely rebuffed with the wholly legitimate excuse that she was already waiting for somebody. She had arrived early because her workload was for once devoid of anything critical and she had spent the next half-an-hour waiting for her wayward companion.

She wouldn't have to wait much longer as the air rippled and Raise stepped from the void. He wore black suit that looked uncharacteristically fashionable. While there was still an obvious limp in his right leg he moved eerily smoothly across the polished tiles. Stepping up to Serafall he offered her his hand.

"Shall we," he said. She smiled and took his hand and the two of them strode into the main ballroom. Stepping into the room they were confronted by a living mass that moved and shifted forming into smaller parts that constantly broke apart and reformed. Many of the richest and most powerful of the devils were there and nearly all of them paused for a moment when Serafall Leviathan walked into the room accompanied by a young unknown and crippled devil.

"Friendly looking faces," Raise said dryly. "Remind me how you convinced me to come."

"Free food," Serafall guessed trying to think back to the two weeks. "Oh I remember," she said with her face lighting up. "You didn't want to abandon a friend to go to a party by herself."

"What a self-sacrificing gesture," a regal voice sounded out from behind them and the two of them turned to see the dignified form of Zekram Bael in his immaculate noble clothes.

"Zekram," Raise acknowledged with naked hostility in his voice and Serafall suddenly remembered that the Gremory heir did not get on well with the former Bael head. This didn't seem to be reciprocated as Zekram Bael merely returned his hostility with a closed lip smile.

"I see your arm and wing still haven't improved," the aged devil said scanning the right side of Raise's body. "I cannot understand your stubbornness. While your condition is bad there could be healers available that would be able to fix that defect. Your lack of any credible attempt to even try restoring your form is one of the things that truly irritate me."

"I would say that I'm sorry but we both know it would be a lie," Raise said enmity dripping from his every word. "I thought I made it quite clear the last time that we spoke that I have no interest in talking to you."

"And yet you so easily step into my manor," Zekram said raising an eyebrow. "You should at least make an attempt at greeting its lord should you not?"

"I wasn't informed that the jubilee would be held here until a few hours before the event started," Raise said sending a sidelong look at Serafall who looked away. "I very nearly called the thing off."

"A pity that would have been," Zekram said with a slight hint of annoyance in his eyes. "I doubt there are many who would have stood up the lovely Leviathan. What is your relationship by the way?"

"Friends," Raise said a split second before Serafall did the same.

"Oh," Zekram said what a pity. "I think that you would make a good match and I've heard from your parents that they were looking to arrange a marriage."

Serafall wasn't sure what happened in the next moment but well-honed instincts flashed to her mind as Raise's face briefly contorted in fury, Zekram Bael took a step back and the air became charged with power. It was gone as quick as it started with only a change of expression on the two males that told her something had happened. Raise now wore a blank expression that revealed nothing about his current emotions and Zekram had a small satisfied look on his face.

"You should be careful lest you lose anymore limbs," Zekram said.

"Serafall let's not let him monopolize any more of our host's time," Raise said turning away.

"If you need anything you only have to ask," Zekram said to the retreating duo.

"What the hell was that?" Serafall said as soon as they got far enough away to be overheard. "I'm surprised that nobody else noticed, for a moment I thought you were going to kill him."

"I'm sorry," Raise said holding a hand up to his head. "Zekram just brings out the worst in me."

"And what was that about losing a limb," Serafall said trying to decipher all the information she received in that conflict of words.

Raise glanced at her reluctantly. "I'm not going to go into details but the first and last time that I met Zekram at the Gremory mansion he obtained permission from my parents to test my powers of destruction. The end result of it was that my power outstripped my control and most of the muscles in my leg and wing were destroyed."

"Wait a moment," Serafall said barely keeping the volume restrained. "I thought it was genetic and you were born without them working. Now you're saying that they were just battle damage. Zekram even offered to hire a healer for you. Why aren't you healing them?"

"Because I don't want to and it's my choice," Raise said. "Damage from the power of destruction is not so easily healed and the caveat that Zekram gave for the specialized healer was that I would train under him in order to master it. But I'd had enough of this cursed ability at that point. I gave up the power of destruction and haven't touched it since. It's caused huge rifts in my family but I'm happy. Yes I may be crippled Serafall but I am content with my life at the moment. Please leave it."

Serafall couldn't accept it. She had often allowed for Raise's different mindset and been tolerant with his differences but this was too much for her. "That's stupid," she growled out. Ignoring the slight look of betrayed surprise on Raise's face she pressed on. "You have the ability to be healed and you don't take it. No wonder they're angry at you. You're wasting your potential Raise," Serafall implored the younger devil. "If you can just heal your leg and wing then you can…"

"Then I can what," Raise said with an almost palpable lack of anger in his voice. "You may think I am wasting my potential, but it is my potential and I will use it how I see fit. Since you apparently consider both my illusion skills as well as my ability to access Senjustu useless I'm going to have to go along and ignore your advice."

A devil approached the couple but a combined glare was enough to send him off. Serafall took a deep breath trying to regain her calm. "I don't understand why you're so against healing your arm and leg."

"Then maybe you don't really see me," Raise said. "I thought you could see past my leg and wing but if this is too much for you then maybe I should leave the great and perfect Leviathan alone."

"You're being unreasonable," Serafall said raising her voice with slight anger.

"Maybe so," the younger devil conceded. "But it is my choice to be unreasonable. Good night Serafall. I hope you enjoy the party."

And with those last words the Raise the youngest Gremory turned his back on the Leviathan and headed out into the cold night.

 **Author Note: I had originally intended for this to be a one-shot that I would complete and go back to White Ink. Unfortunately this proved harder than I thought. It is really hard to write for so long without feedback and so I only managed about half of the story in all the time I used. So quite frankly I will return to White Ink and finish this 'one-shot' after White Ink is completed.**

 **On a side note and as a word of warning I am not a huge fan of DXD despite loving a great many fanfics of it (something about it rubs me the wrong way). You can consider that a great amount of spite took place to motivate the writing of the story.**


	2. Chapter 2

Serafall Leviathan set down the work paper that she had tortured herself with for the past few hours. There were no major fires that she was forced to put out, and the frantic negotiations that she indulged herself in on a not-infrequent-enough basis were missing, to be replaced by the monotony of ratifying agreements and indulging herself in minor amounts of politicking. While this step down in her workload would usually be welcomed, she now cursed the fact that it did nothing to take her mind off the fight that she had with Raise.

Serafall had not seen him for the entire week after he stormed out of the Revolution Jubilee and she was becoming slightly worried. Well not worried, she amended within her head. It was just that it was the first true fight that the pair of friends had ever had. Compounding her bout of nervousness was the fact that she remembered that Raise had also ended his friendship with Lilika for much the same reason and she hoped that history wasn't repeating itself.

She stood up determined to go to his garden and demand to speak to him, and then she sat back down again. She wasn't wrong she told herself and that stubborn conviction prevented her from giving anything more than a half-hearted apology. He was definitely sharp enough to pick up on that and her pride wouldn't allow her to accept all the blame when the current state of affairs was more of his fault than hers. Shit, she was at the assigning blame stage of her little pity party again.

Her thoughts were broken as her door rattled with the sound of frantic knocks and Serafall's eyes widened in surprise at the most unusual interruption to her work. There were few who would dare to interrupt her in her study. The list started and ended with her parents and unless they were trying to bash down the door to inform her that her time as an only child was over it was unlikely to be them.

Sighing she waved her hand activating a spell that caused the locks to spring open and the door to swing open. Stepping into the room was one of her personal guards, a young man with brown hair and yellow eyes with an appearance that was a cut above average as devils go in the looks department. His face was not familiar and Serafall realised with some embarrassment that he was probably the newest one, acquired after the Jubilee, who she hadn't introduced herself to yet.

"Lady Serafall," he panted. He was noticeably out of breath and it was quite clear that he had run the whole way from his post up here. The whole situation spoke of nothing good and Serafall found herself getting deadly serious as she focused all her attention on the guard. "We're under attack milady," he said stammering over his words.

"By who," she said narrowing her eyes, running through the short list of those that would dare attack her.

"One man," the man said and shocked as she was Serafall could still pick up the tone of utter shame in his voice. "He has red hair and walked with a limp."

"Really," Serafall said and some of the tension bled out of her shoulders as she thought of the one person she knew of that fit that definition. "Okay," she said standing up. "Let's go meet him." She walked towards the door and passed by the newest guardsman.

"Meet him, Lady Serafall?" the guard asked hesitantly as he matched her stride down the hallway.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I know the person," Serafall started. "He's a… friend I suppose. We had a bit of a falling out, but not to the extent that he would assault my castle." She looked back towards the trailing young devil. "Did you do or say anything to set him off?"

"He told us we came to see you," the younger devil said sounding slightly guilty. "But he didn't have an appointment and he was trespassing. So the Captain wanted to take him into custody for the moment."

"Let me guess," Serafall said as the situation unfolded in her mind. "He absolutely refused, tensions arose and you eventually decided to restrain him anyway."

The rookie nodded looking as if the ground was about to swallow him up and Serafall sighed. "Well what you did wasn't really wrong," she offered, putting herself in the shoes of her guards. In fact their method was probably standard procedure when dealing with an unknown intruder. The only problem was that they used the procedure on the worst possible target. Serafall picked up speed and almost tore through the entrance, only the extremely well made quality of devil engineering prevented the handle from flying off the door.

The scene that greeted Serafall was both awe-inspiring in its execution and exasperating in its absolute unnecessariness. Her elite guard, a collection of devils hand-picked from the strongest among the pillar clans and trained even further to the extent that nearly half of their number could boast power on the level of, or even greater than an ultimate class devil, lay littered unconscious throughout the floor in various positions of defeat. Serafall watched in impressed exasperation as Raise flickered into existence with a burst of pure speed, appearing between a pair of sentries that were back to back, and lashed out with a pair of devastating punches which caused them to slump to the ground with a crunching noise.

It was all a lie of course. Her elite guard had been fighting an illusion this whole time. Like Sirzechs had said, it was possible to get a feel for where Raise was or was not and while her eyes and ears told her that her guards were slumped over from the crushing blows, her finely honed sense for magic told her that Raise was not there and the pair of guards had both fallen before she had even opened the door.

"Hello Serafall," the voice came from beside her and she turned to stare into the blue orbs of the youngest Gremory. His casualness in the situation caused her to huff in annoyance. He could at least try to look serious when he was assaulting her home.

"Did you really have to knock out all my people," she said. "And I can sense you're not here Raise. How can you talk to me?"

"Are you so sure Serafall?" Raise said and a slight smile danced on his lips. "For all you know I could have created an illusion to erase my magical presence."

"I wouldn't put it past you," Serafall said honestly. Raise's tended to keep a quiet lid on his own aptitude with illusions and was also inclined to play up the mystery aspect of what was real or a fantasy. As a result it was really quite hard for her to gauge his progress.

"But you are correct," he said. "That ability so far eludes me." His face flickered and for a moment his eyes were replaced by the blue spots on one of his butterflies as his head faded to reveal one of the insects hovering in the air, as if in defiance of gravity. Then the illusion resumed and Serafall put together the pieces. He was hearing through his familiar and speaking via an auditory illusion. Still it was unusual for Raise to keep his distance from her and her eyes swivelled to the boy who had accompanied her who was holding his weapon aloft and aimed at her friend with only a minimum of shaking.

"Put your weapon down," she said with a sideways glance to the only conscious member of her guard. "It won't help you."

Perhaps her words were a bit harsh but they did the job as the boy swallowed and reluctantly returned his sword to its sheath, although his hand never moved far away the weapon.

As soon as he did the image of Raise disintegrated into butterflies flying up into the air and reforming into the form of Raise lying on the grass, with his hands behind his head, staring up at the sky. Serafall focused her senses to try and discern his magical presence and found it after a moment she picked it up at the exact spot that he lay down. Watching as he lay there so relaxed, heedless of the grass stains he was likely getting on his old black suit she decided that it was probably a nice day to relax under the purple sky.

"So," she said as she lay down beside him, her one remaining bodyguard following her and never taking his eyes off of Raise. "Is there a reason you attacked my home?"

"I wanted to apologize," Raise said still staring at the purple sky. "It seems I was overhasty to declare that I had completely got rid of my anger. Whatever disagreements that we had that night, they were nowhere near enough to excuse my behaviour and abandon the party."

He paused in his words and a comfortable silence filled the space. Serafall smiled as she felt the distance between them close. Her friend had put aside his pride and sincerely apologized and Serafall had never held a grudge over that evening in the first place. There were no real problems beside a slight annoyance from devils propositioning her and a query from Sirzechs that got her an understanding nod.

"It's cool," she said. "Couldn't you have sent a card or something, rather than beating up my employees?"

"I planned to just drop in, much like you do," Raise said. "Unfortunately things didn't go quite as planned. Words were exchanged, they got a bit heated and," he waved his hand dismissively. "Well you see the result."

"I assume they're all going to be okay," Serafall said with a note of warning in her voice.

"A couple days of bed rest at the most," Raise said not reacting to the implied threat. "I used Senjutsu to disable them for the most part. Their life force is damaged and reduced but their physical body was not harmed."

"That's okay then," Serafall said relaxing ignoring the wide eyes of the last guardsman that he didn't even try to hide. "It will teach them a valuable lesson not to judge based on appearances. Is there a reason that you didn't just illusion your way past them?"

Raise's face turned thoughtful. "Initially I just wanted to be polite and announce myself," he said. "Then when my politeness failed and then when they tried to lock me up against my will I lost my temper."

Raise's words stopped and silence briefly resumed before Serafall decided to break it. "I'm sorry also. I shouldn't have pushed you. I get it, there are things that make you lose your cool. Despite your seeming maturity, you are still a devil and a young one at that.

Raise accepted this and the silence was shorter this time before he pulled out a basket covered by a sheet. "My fig tree gave a good harvest recently," he said. "I also recently managed to construct a small pond and got a pair of koi."

"That sounds nice," Serafall said visualising the new instalment to his garden. "You can also come visit me anytime, I'll instruct the guards to let you through," she gave a small smile as she saw the young man who hadn't taken his eyes off of Raise the entire time. It was very unlikely they would ever impede her friend again. While their job was to protect her it was largely ceremonial due to the fact that on her worst day, despite their strength she could beat them blindfolded and they therefore tended to default to their second job of keeping undesirables out. For a devil nothing was more undesirable than someone with no power and if there was one thing that came out of this it was the fact that all of her elite guard would no doubt respect his strength in future.

Serafall briefly wondered if she should instruct her guards not to mention anything about the youngest Gremory and then decided against it. Despite Raise's distaste for power she was firmly of the belief that he couldn't keep pretending to be weak for the remainder of his life. She briefly felt as if she was betraying him but quickly quashed that emotion. She was doing it for his own good, as a powerful devil he could do whatever he wants and even marry anybody he wants.

Serafall suddenly stood up with such speed that she startled the two conscious people around her. "Well it's time to begin packing away the bodies," she said. "Aren't you going to help Raise," she said. "After all you were the devil who knocked them unconscious."

"Are you really going to make the cripple do this work Serafall," Raise said with a smirk upon his face. He then snapped his fingers and his body dissolved into light only to reappear standing up a short distance away. "You'll have to show me where the dumping spot is Sera. Remember I've never actually been to your house."

"That's perfect," Serafall said. "I'll give you a tour." And with those last words the three of them started the chore of returning the bodies to their beds. And Serafall Sitri was happy.

xxx

"Hello Sera," the voice came from inside the room causing her to flinch in surprise from her paperwork.

"By His name Raise," she yelled out loud displaying more anger than she actually felt. "Do you not know how to knock?" The first few times after their reconciliation he had gone through all the standard procedures and the guards had let him through. However he had confided to her that the respect that they had shown him after he had wiped the floor with them made him feel deeply uncomfortable to the point that in all future visits started with a knock upon her study door. Apparently today he had decided to forgo the door.

"Sorry Sera," Raise said. "Been a bit of a rough day."

"Are you okay," Serafall said. To any other devil there would have been no difference between Raise's current appearance and his normal one but Serafall knew him better than that. Raise was a devil that took very particular care in his appearance. Not necessarily how attractive he looked but he took great pains to look the same every day. In fact the only time that she had ever seen him out of his old black suit was when she invited him to the revolution Jubilee and he wore a newer black suit.

Raise paused for a moment. "No," he said. "I think I might hate my parents."

Serafall whistled as she narrowed down the possible things that could be bothering him to one. The big one, the one that Raise had complained about on and off for the past few months.

"Have they decided on a party to the contract," Serafall asked with some curiosity and large amounts of concern for her friend. She would hate to see Raise trapped in a loveless marriage.

"Somebody from the Bael family," Raise said taking a seat on the couch in Serafall's office. She had it installed ever since Raise had come over to prevent him from just lying down on the carpet. "They were originally trying to arrange something with the Phenex family but there were no female devils that were in my age range and I think Zekram made an offer."

"And is she a looker," Serafall asked leaning forward with her hands beneath her chin, taking great interest in this conversation.

"Does it matter," Raise said lying back on the couch. "All devils look attractive, on the outside of course." He sighed wearily and turned to lie on his side facing Serafall. "I hated her personality," he admitted. "I was deliberately rude, doing everything short of wishing her an untimely demise and she just sucked it up. Apparently she believes I'm a wounded puppy lashing out at the world to hide my own pain. She also believes that she can 'fix' me by showing me love."

The tone of disgust that Raise spoke in was so harsh that Serafall let out chuckle. Raise gave her a dirty look and she did her best to stifle her chuckles causing him to stare at the ceiling again.

"I mean she even promised me that I could have a harem after marriage," he said, his words arctic in their intensity. "How badly do you have to miss the actual point to think that? I don't even want to have to deal with her and apparently giving me more women is supposed to be an incentive."

A frown crossed Serafall's face at the thought of Raise with a harem. He was right it didn't really suit him. He was much more suited to having one worthy girl.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked him leaning forward and pushing her paperwork to the side.

"Not get married that's for certain," Raise said with indignation. "Honestly I don't even know where this obsession with family lines and maintaining the family name comes from. Oh wait I do," he said. "It's humans, because my creatively sterile race can't get a damn idea without cribbing it from somebody else."

Serafall frowned with mild indignation but she ultimately forced it down, right now Raise was just lashing out and venting his feelings and she couldn't really begrudge him that.

"Honestly when you think," he raised his hands to the ceiling in exasperation. "Really and truly think about it, it's the least devil like thing in the whole world. I'm sure that Lucifer didn't give a shit about maintaining the family name when he rebelled against his Father."

"The devils nowadays are not anything like the originals," Serafall said neutrally, thinking about the days prior to the civil war, days filled with blood and pain and violence. "In many ways the current era was an improvement, but there were still lingering problems to anybody who took a closer look, such as the discrimination against the extra clans or the rising number of strays.

"Is that why you like dragons so much," Serafall asked standing up from her desk and stretching as she put aside her remaining work for a different day. "Because they get do whatever they want."

"Yes," Raise said standing up himself. "I mean look at Ddraig and Albion. Yes, they got sealed, but they managed to fight off the entire three factions. They didn't back down even as they fought Him," Raise said emphasising the capitals as he spoke about the devils many-times great-grandfather. "You would never see Tiamat or Tannin let themselves be ruled over or forced to conform to society and a person would have to be literally insane to try to force the Infinite Dragon God to do anything she didn't want to."

Raise spoke the truth. Before Ddraig and Albion were sealed they had rampaged around the world gaining the ire of many factions without any fear and while she had heard rumours that Tiamat may be involved with Azazel both her and Tannin were both easily able to live free with zero fear of danger. As for Ophis, well Serafall pitied that hypothetical madman.

"How is your Senjutsu coming along," she inquired as she opened the door with Raise following her.

"Pretty good," he replied. "I've found some very interesting things," he continued cagily. Their path took them up the stairways of her house towards the top. Guards saluted to the pair as they went past and after the third time that it happened Raise snapped his fingers and faded from sight, only Serafall's finely trained magical senses informing her of his current presence.

Leading him up to the roof she opened the door to the magnificent sight of a garden in full bloom. Thousands of beautiful flowers blossomed in hundreds of different colours and a miniature waterfall provided the audio backdrop to the scene. There was a row of benches that leaned against the rocky sides of this rooftop garden and multiple statues dotted the landscape. Raise stepped forward fading into visibility again and his eyes swept from side-to-side evaluating the spectacle before him.

"What do you think," Serafall said with only the faintest hint of nervousness. She decided to create a garden so that Raise could relax when he came over and was now eagerly waiting for his approval of the place.

"Why did you build this, Sera?" Raise asked her. He walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. "I didn't think you were the kind of person to enjoy this," he continued. "Is my garden not enough to fulfil your newly found landscaping fetish?"

"No," Serafall said snickering at the hypocrisy of him accusing her of having a landscaping fetish. "I built it just in case you wanted to relax while you were over here. I know how much you like gardens."

Raise looked her up and down and opened his mouth as if to say something before closing it again. "Excellent," he said after a short pause, his lips twitching upwards. "But you're going about it wrong. To understand the glory of a garden you have to create and maintain it yourself. Yes your garden is impressive, in size and splendour it far outstrips mine, but it lacks true character. Serafall Sitri, you have yet to learn the true worth of a garden."

"What the hell are you talking about Raise?" Serafall asked blinking at the uncharacteristic speech.

"Maybe I went a bit overboard," Raise admitted in his standard, more subdued manner. "I truly believe that everybody should have a garden," he said sincerely. "I use mine as a place in which I exhibit absolute control and peace of mind. A place where sight and sound bend to my will and whether something is real or not is at my discretion."

"Well I'm using mine as a place for us to sit and enjoy nature," Serafall said. "Come on Raise, not everything has to have a deep philosophical component to it. Sometimes things are exactly as they seem."

Raise opened his mouth to speak and then shut it before shaking his head and leaning back on his bench. "Sorry Sera," he said. "I tend to overthink things such as these. I honestly do like the garden."

"No, problem Raise," Serafall said sitting next to the younger devil. "I like those things about you."

The two sat in silence for a bit before Raise yawned and the illusion flickered. "My apologies," he said turning towards her. "I've been really tired recently. I'm working on something big."

"You've alluded to that before," Serafall said. "Mind showing me what I've found."

"Hmm," Raise said as he lay back down on the bench. "Tell you what. My birthday is coming up in two weeks' time. If you take me to the human world then I will show you the great insight that I've had into Senjutsu."

"But you specifically don't keep your bargains Raise," Serafall said remembering the prior wager they had with Senjutsu. "What insurance do I have that you would keep your promise?"

"Firstly taking me to the human world should be its own reward," Raise said holding up one finger. "Secondly it wasn't a promise or a deal. I'm simply stating that if you were to take me to the human world I would be grateful and happy enough that I would likely freely share my insight."

"Well I suppose if it's for your birthday," Serafall said with faux-reluctance. "Then I have no choice but to spoil you."

"Perfect," Raise said smiling even as he reclined on the bench, staring up at the purple sky.

xxx

"I know I left it open ended as to the exact location in which we should have our trip," the newly fifteen year old devil said. "I avoided mentioning a specific place in the hopes that you would surprise me," he continued as he glanced up at the blue sky before looking around at the many ruined buildings of which only a few had started being rebuilt or escaped unscathed. "But then you went to pick Japan, a country in the middle of a brutal civil war. Then you went a step further and informed me that we're going to Kyoto. Really Serafall, your choice of location for my birthday was a ruined city in the middle of a war-zone."

Serafall pouted at his words but could not dispute his logic, if Kyoto was all that they were going to see. Thankfully she knew a lot more than Raise about this area, which she had visited in many diplomatic ventures.

"I know you can see the illusion Raise," Serafall said gesturing to a space that would have appeared empty to almost anybody else on the planet. To Serafall it looked like a swirling shaded mist and Raise probably saw through it like clear water.

"Of course I can," Raise said gesturing towards the barrier. "But I thought we were going to visit the human world not meet up with a group of Youkai," he said staring at a specific point in the air and confirming Serafall's suspicions.

Suddenly the space directly in front of them shattered like a pane of glass and the sight of ruined Kyoto was replaced by the sight of an angry young foxgirl storming towards the pair. Her hair was blonde and had blue ribbons that divided it into two pig-tails giving her a youthful appearance. She wore an outfit that reminiscent of the miko of a few centuries ago and she was trailed by a man with crow head and wings.

"How can you see through my illusions," she screamed for some reason pointing at Serafall.

"Calm down young Misstress," the crow headed man said running in an attempt to prevent her from outright attacking Raise.

"Kyoto's skill in illusions must be poor indeed," Raise said flatly causing the fox-eared girls eyes to widen in rage before he continued. "If you cannot recognize that you are yelling at Serafall instead of me." A snap of his fingers and Raise appeared behind the group inspecting the remnants of the illusion. Serafall frowned as she realised that she had spent the last few seconds disguised as Raise and vowed to up her training to detect illusions. In front of her the jaw of the kitsune dropped in a rather comical manner and the Karasu-Tengu subtly laid a hand on his blade.

"Let's not go there," Serafall said stepping forward. The Karasu-Tengu glanced at her and did that strange double-take that people usually had when they realised that, 'yes, this is the Leviathan standing before me', and lowered his sword pretty fast.

Meanwhile the kitsune girl had gravitated towards Raise and was badgering him about his illusions. He gave short one word answers while examining the energy from the barrier but it didn't seem to discourage her.

"Lady Serafall we weren't expecting you until tomorrow," the crow-headed man said. "My humblest apologies, but we may not have space for you and your consort."

"Consort?" Serafall said and the wheels in her mind ground to a stop. Whipping her head in the direction of Raise she looked at him and then back to herself trying to figure what in all the hells made him think that they were together. Raise was so much younger than her, and he looked it. While she admitted that he had grown a few inches, especially after he had learnt Senjutsu, he still looked on the small side for a fifteen year-old. Then he saw the kitsune smiling as she finally manage to draw Raise into a discussion and the crow's intention became clear.

"He's not my consort," Serafall said, firmly friendzoning herself and forcing down ugly emotions inside of her. "He's a friend that I brought here for his birthday. I thought some exposure to other factions would do him good.

"I'm glad you did," he said. "Lady Sakutsuki is rarely this animated with anybody. Apparently your friend's illusions have captured her imagination."

"Yes," Serafall said agreeing with him. "The kitsune had grasped Raise's intention and the two were engaged in furious debate as they approached them.

"But how do you compensate for the effects of multiple perceptions on the underlying illusion," the kitsune girl Sakutsuki said.

"Either capitalise on the beings innate belief or start thinking three-dimensionally," Raise said giving a brusque answer that demanded unpacking. That unpacking would have to wait for later as he turned towards Serafall when they approached.

"So what did you want to show me," he asked cutting off the conversation to the disapproving pout of the fox-girl.

"I was just going to take you around the city of Kyoto and then maybe someplace to eat," Serafall said smiling. "But maybe this young lady wants to show you around. Maybe you can continue to talk about your magic while you do so."

"Yes, of course," the younger kitsune said composing herself and grabbing onto Raise's arm and Serafall watched the young kitsune drag her friend away for a few moments. "Shame on you toying with a lady's feelings," she addressed nobody in particular with a grin upon her face.

The image of the karasu-tengu next to her wavered and was replaced by the image of Raise who stood there with his hands in his pockets.

"You didn't sense me," he said analysing her. "You just know me well enough to know that there was no way of me allowing myself to be dragged off."

"I assume she's dragging the crow," Serafall said as she continued walking forward trailed by her friend.

"Indeed," Raise confirmed. "He's under the same illusion, just looking at it with a different perception," he said with a chuckle.

"Are you going to explain the joke?" Serafall asked as she walked into one of the pristine looking buildings, a contrast to the ruined state of Kyoto outside the illusion.

"It's not really funny," Raise admitted looking somewhat sheepish. The area they had walked into was a restaurant serving all manner of Japanese dishes. Varieties of youkai were in attendance and as soon as they entered eyes turned towards them, apparently sensing that the visitors were not like them. The curious glances didn't slow down Serafall, only causing her to lead Raise into a private booth. A moment later a nekomata waiter appeared and Serafall ordered with Raise following her lead. When they had finally been left alone Raise decided to speak again.

"The perception problem is the fact that it is incredibly hard for a person to create an illusion that caters to more than one person due to differences in viewpoint, senses or outlook. As such it is normally far harder for illusionists to create illusions that affect multiple people. It is commonly seen as a mark of passage to overcome this flaw."

"But you can do this," Serafall said stating the obvious. After all she had seen him do this many times before today.

Raise inclined his head slightly. "Since I was twelve," he said his voice barely more than a whisper.

"So it probably wouldn't have been an even trade of ideas," Serafall said understanding the situation better now.

Raise shrugged. "So what did you want to show me," he said. "We're in the heart of youkai territory. I assume we're going to do more than walk around."

"Very few devils would even get to walk around in the youkai capital," Serafall stated as she waited for the food to come. "We're not exactly the most well liked species among the various youkai clans."

Raise nodded, having very little desire or ability to argue that point and the nekomata waitress came back with their drinks and meal. They waited until she had retreated out of earshot for Serafall to resume the conversation.

"But yes," she continued. "There is something else that I want you to see. Do you remember the events of your last birthday?"

"The arena," Raise said immediately and Serafall could pick up the faintest glimmer of disgust cross his face before it disappeared utterly and his face took on his usual indifferently casual look.

"Don't worry Raise it isn't a contest of strength," she said assuaging his doubts. "Once a year in Kyoto from all around the world the most proficient illusionists from various factions display their ability in a contest of illusions to determine the best."

"I've heard of those. That actually sounds pretty interesting," Raise said taking a sip of his drink.

"Yup and that's why I entered you," Serafall said cheerfully.

Raise did very carefully not spit out his drink onto the face of his friend, no matter how much he was tempted.

"You entered me into a competition among the best in the world without telling me," Raise said his voice incredulous.

"Yup," Serafall said smiling at him. "It starts in three hours; you might want to use this time to think up a routine."

"Three hours," Raise said slightly stunned. "Serafall it takes a couple of hours to adapt a new illusion never mind create an entire illusionary routine. I don't know how you expect me to win the tournament on that short notice."

"Win it?" Serafall said her eyes widening. "Raise I don't expect you to win it. These are the finest in the world. Yes, you're amazing at illusions, but many of these contenders have decades if not centuries of practice on you. I entered you to get experience and have some fun, not to win it."

"True," Raise said slowly as if tasting the words and contemplating her point of view. "But my illusions are the one thing that I'm proud of. And if I have to weave a dream in front of an audience then it's going to be a damn good dream." He stood up and left the booth. "Come Sera, we have no time to waste."

Putting down entirely too much money for the simple meal, Serafall hurried after Raise and into the busiest three hours of her life.

xxx

Despite the difference in the performances the construction of the Kyoto central stadium was very similar to the arena. Both of them were circular in shape, with rows of layered seats and special boxes for VIP's at the top and just like the arena, Kyoto Central Stadium had an absolutely massive amount of attendees. Hundreds if not thousands of the youkai sat in their seats making up the majority, but that was far from all of them. A myriad of supernatural races made up the remainder. Serafall recognized the fallen angels and devils first, mainly due to her familiarity with them, but over the time that she had sat here she had seen more western monsters, angels, and even a couple of gods relaxing opposite her in the booths. It turns out the event was better well attended than even she thought.

A splattering of applause and Serafall watched as a glass of red wine in a goblet appeared in front of her. Idly she brought it to her lips and was surprised to taste something that might have been wine. Of course it was an illusion, and not one that she hadn't been able to see through but it was still impressive to see hundreds of illusory goblets emerge at a single vampire's insistence.

The goblet shimmered into non-existence and Serafall focused on the judges table, a brief spell enhancing her already supernatural vison to godly levels for the purpose of identifying the scores they gave. The scores among them were largely decent, amounting to a 6.8 average among the five of them, but the contestant, a vampire who sat at a banquet table, did not look happy as he retreated from the coliseum and into the contestant's area.

"There was no way for him to actually pull that off," the voice came from a butterfly that hovered next to Serafall. "Taste is one of the most subjective of the five senses and as a vampire his ability to empathise with the taste of others differs from the standard by several orders of magnitude. Despite the powers of his illusions they were ultimately sloppy and incompatible."

"That is a very good analysis," a third voice joined the fray and they both turned to see a new person appear from thin air. The third member in the viewing box was a nekomata. Unlike every other one of the cat people that Serafall had seen in her long existence, she showed physical signs of aging. Her hair was grey and there were a few wrinkles under her eyes and while they did little to detract from the beauty inherent to her race, they were very unusual considering the fact that most female supernatural creatures used magic to retain their youthful looks. Too complete the image of her, two grey tails languished from underneath a modest Shrine maiden's outfit.

"Losing your touch Raise," Serafall said, with some incredulity at the fact that the younger devil hadn't seen her before now. "How long has she been in the room?"

"She's still not in the room," the red-headed devil corrected her the image of his body appearing next to her. "Her existence here is an illusion. It is likely she is using a surveillance rune to perceive us and remotely set up a reference point for this illusion."

"Good eyes," the aged cat lady said. "By the way isn't it forbidden for contestants to watch the prior matches? Something about it giving them an unfair advantage?"

"You should know given the fact that you have high enough clearance to place surveillance here," Raise said not flinching at the question. "But to be frank I prioritise learning from other people's illusions over showing off my own."

"And what do you think of the show so far," the unnamed cat-woman said walking over to them and glancing down at the next contestant, an angel with eight wings.

"Polarising," Raise said. "None of them have been able to capture the whole audience." A bright light shone and the arena was filled with an image of thousands of angels surrounding the Almighty causing even Serafall to recoil slightly. "All of them bring their unique perspective; refusing to water down their illusions down to cater for the entire crowd."

"Don't you think it's admirable that they display their art without fear of criticism," the aged nekomata said but Raise wasn't listening as he was too focused on the ongoing illusion.

"Anyway I'm Taiyoki," she said smiling. "I believe you've met my granddaughter Sakutsuki already. You made quite an impression on her; the poor girl isn't used to being fooled twice by illusions."

"When you are utterly convinced that you know the truth of the world, only then you can be absolutely sure that you're living in an illusion," Raise said tearing his eyes away from the display in front of him. He opened his mouth to say more and then glanced at Taiyoki before turning away from them.

"So what you're saying is overconfidence is the real problem," Taiyoki said nodding her head.

"Something like that," Raise brushed her off. "When am I up Serafall?" he asked.

"After the next one," she said and Taiyoki suddenly seemed even more interested in the duo.

"So you're the Leviathan," she said and then turned her head towards the young Gremory. "I heard that the Leviathan used her influence to include a last minute competitor." At this Raise shot an irritated look towards Serafall and the current Leviathan scratched the back of her head looking embarrassed. "From what I've heard people have quite high hopes for you and from what I've seen they won't be disappointed."

"No they won't," Raise agreed with a smile on his face.

xxx

(Three hours earlier)

"So you've actually got a plan for this," Serafall asked as Raise virtually dragged her to a secluded spot.

"Not a routine," Raise said. "But a single spell that can do as well as a routine. What do you know of primordial illusions Serafall?"

"Nothing," Serafall replied taking note of the ominous sounding name. "What does it do?"

"Hmm, how to explain this," Raise said tapping his chin. "Most illusions stimulate the mind to provoke an emotional or rational response. Whether by sight or sound or hearing or taste or touch or intuition or magic sensing or…" he purposefully cut himself off. "Primordial illusions do the opposite by creating an illusionary sensation and then using the persons own mind to simulate the input. Do you understand?"

"It's fairly self-explanatory," Serafall said. "But it's also something I've never heard of before. Where did you find out about it?"

"Sirzhecs got me a book a few months ago and I worked it out from there. Took me a long time but I've pretty much got it down. Why?"

"It's just that I've never even heard of this ability before," joking she pointed at Raise. "All of a sudden you pull out a spell out of nowhere that works perfectly for the situation with no foreshadowing. That's a terrible storytelling technique."

"Foreshadowing is a technique that writers use to feel smug because they gave you minor clues and the readers were not in the exact mind-set to put them together," Raise said putting his fingers to his temples. "But sure, consider this ability appropriately foreshadowed for future reference."

He sat down at one of the many benches at the park and Serafall sat next to him. "There are only two problems that keep primordial illusions away from the majority of aspiring illusionists besides a general lack of talent. The first is that primordial illusions are internal and therefore require the ability to synchronise with an opponent's own energy. This can be easily overcome by the use of Senjutsu. The second is that primordial illusions, especially casting them over a number of people, require an obscene amount of power. I have an above average amount for my age due to non-stop casting of illusions, but I have nowhere near the amount needed."

"But you have a plan," Serafall said relaxing on the bench while digesting the information.

"I do," he said calmly as he stared at the blue sky. "There are no rules against transferring power before the contest. Considering the fact that the complexity, completeness and overall uniqueness of the illusion is judged rather than the power of the contestant it is in fact encouraged."

"So you want me to transfer my mana to you," Serafall quickly guessed. It was obvious, as one of the four Satans she had an incredible mana capacity. Raise would have to find a god if he wanted a better mana source. However there was a problem that she could see right off the bat. "Mana transfer rituals take hours when the conditions are already set up. I don't see how you can possibly perform this one in such a short time."

"Senjutsu," Raise said as if it explained everything. And in a manner of speaking it did. Very little was known of the art rendering it an impenetrable mystery to all devils.

"Is that what you promised to show me the last time we met?" Serafall asked.

"That, no," Raise said immediately. "This is something I learnt from Lilika before we left," he explained further. The silence stretched to almost awkward levels as the two sat there.

"Don't you think you should get on with it," Serafall said with only a hint of impatience.

"Okay," Raise said turning to face her and taking a deep breath. "Please don't read too deep into this," he then he kissed her.

xxx

Serafall forced down a faint blush as she recalled the events of a few hours ago. When Raise had kissed her she had immediately felt the drain on her mana and noticed the rise in his. In an impressively short time his magic had increased to a much higher level and while he had informed her that it was highly unsustainable and that his body wasn't physically well adapted to holding that amount of magic at any one time. Due to this reason his body was currently meditating in the competitor's waiting room trying to regain control over all the magic.

"You seem quiet Sera," the voice of Raise came from image next to her. "Is there something on your mind?"

"Nothing," Serafall said immediately, and then she changed her mind. "I was just thinking. When you took in my energy…" she paused.

"Yes," Raise said after a few seconds of silence.

"I was just thinking you didn't look very well," Serafall lied. "Will you be okay?"

"Senjutsu has quite powerful healing capabilities," Raise said, half avoiding the question. "I should be able to heal completely given enough time."

"That doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence Raise," Serafall said. "I'm really starting to regret entering you into this competition.

"Well it's too late now," Raise said cheerfully. "I'm about to enter the stage." Those words were accompanied by the illusion fading and the leftover butterfly landing on Serafall's shoulder. Looking down Serafall watched with rising trepidation as Raise walked onto the stage. He looked like hell and the constant illusion that hid his damaged wing and leg was down. Casting magic and boosting her eyesight allowed her to see the look of absolute tiredness on his face and she watched as small spasms ran through his body. The sight would have been enough to make anybody anxious about his condition but Serafall had barely any time to worry herself as the youngest Gremory lifted his hands and she felt a massive amount of magic sweep through the stadium.

She felt her whole world change as her body faded into light, one word whispering in her mind and drowning out her thoughts before she dissolved into radiance.

"Nirvana."

xxx

Serafall walked down a hallway with a red carpet beneath her heels. She wore a stunning white dress with a matching veil and clutched in her hands were a boquet of purple flowers of a kind that only grew in the Sitri portion of the underworld. The architecture that surrounded her was ostentatious and yet deeply familiar. A feeling of deep content welled up within her breast as she came to a grand door about a dozen feet in height. To one side her father stood wearing his a suit of unsurpassed finery, a look of happiness upon his face as he looked at her. He put his hand to the door and pushed it open revealing a crowd of devils that stood in groups looking in awe at her as the she entered the room. But none of them captured her attention in the slightest as her eyes were naturally drawn to a single devil. Smiling with elation she stepped forward…

xxx

Serafall came to her senses to the sound of an almighty commotion in the audience. A cavalcade of weeping, awestruck faces, hope ridden smiles, breathless joy rendered devils, angels, youkai and even the gods equals under the primordial emotion that coursed through the crowd.

However, Serafall wasn't focused on the crowd around her but on her friend in the arena. Raise lay face down and dead still. In an instant she was out of the booth and on the field cradling him. It was only when she felt the slight motion of his shaky breath that she relaxed infinitesimally but the sheer lack of power in his body indicated that he was in no way out of the woods yet.

"Hold on Raise," she said as she darted into the medical building. "Please hold on for me."

The hospital room was large and mostly empty despite the grand event being held. Beds lay in rows and a scarce few were occupied by various supernatural creatures with light injuries being addressed by uniformed miko or left alone in peace and quiet. That quietness was broken as a panicked Serafall.

She lay him down on the bed and a swarm of the miko approached the downed devil. Serafall stepped back and let them, cursing her lack of healing magic. The youkai that were in charge of healing cost various diagnostics that she had no way of understanding. Serafall felt her suspense rise as she was ignored by the various healers in lieu of them helping Raise.

"I'll take it from here," the voice came from behind her and Serafall was surprised to see the familiar grey haired nekomata walk into the room. She stepped up to Raise's bed shooing away the other nurses as she inspected the injured devil.

"Will he be okay?"Serafall said trying to ask Taiiyoki, only to be ignored.

"Don't worry," the voice of Sirzechs Lucifer announced his presence behind her and she felt a comforting hand upon her shoulder. "Old Taiyoki is pretty much the best at fixing these sorts of things."

"Sirzechs," Serafall remarked surprised at his sudden appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"As if I would miss my little brother's first competition," he said smiling with only a faint hint of worry in his eyes at the sight of Raise lying motionless. "He had informed his parents that he had plans to celebrate his birthday with a friend this year so I looked up your schedule and found out that you had spent some time in Kyoto. A few inquiries from Taiyoki and I found out about him being entered into the competition. And here we are."

Just then the aforementioned cat woman turned away from her patient and joined the two devils in their conversation.

"He will be fine," she said. "His life force was badly damaged, but it has already started healing by itself. In a couple of weeks he should be back to top shape. Although," she said tapping her lips with her finger. "There is a way of speeding up that process. I'm sure my granddaughter wouldn't mind trying the use of Bouchujutsu on the young man."

"No," Sirzechs said an instant after Serfall. "You've already said he'll get better over time. Maybe some bed rest will do him good."

Taiyoki pouted for a bit. "Stingy," she said and then broke out into a smile. "Did you see the look on the judge's face though? He's definitely going to be taking the fourth."

"Taking the fourth?" Serafall inquired.

"It means that he wouldn't qualify for a top spot due to some or other breach of the rules," Sirzechs surprisingly elaborated. "But that he was undoubtedly ahead of the other contestants regardless. In other words he automatically takes fourth place."

"Breach of the rules?" Serafall asked feeling a little out of place between two people who knew far more about this than her.

"They have to be conscious to receive their scores and there is a minimum duration," Taiyoki elaborated. "He came in under that duration so the judges could naturally not score him. Still he will be invited to all future contests of this nature and there are still prizes for taking the fourth."

"It still is a bit disappointing that he won't be able to enjoy the rest of the day," Taiyoki said stretching out her arms. "We usually have a few more events, which I'm sure he would have enjoyed."

"Nah, I'm sure he'll be happy once I've told him," Sirzechs said walking up to his downed brother. "Is he well enough to take home?" he asked.

"I would like to keep him under observation for a while," Taiyoki said. "But he should recover on his own without any intervention."

"That's all I needed to hear," Sirzech's said as he walked up to his brother, picking him up in a bridal carry as if he was weightless. "I'll take him home. You should enjoy yourself at the festival Serafall, but please come visit him sometime. He really enjoys them."

And with a last wave he summoned a magic circle beneath him and disappeared; leaving Serafall standing alone in Kyoto surrounded by youkai.

xxx

It took two weeks for Serafall to get the opportunity to visit Raise again. A minor feud between two pillar clans forced Serafall to work together with Sirzechs to try and reach an amicable solution. In the end she was forced to ask Severean for help intervening with one of the clans, an action that put her in a very bad mood for a while as his antics annoyed her immensely.

During that time she had inquired with the Lucifer as to his health and the red Satan had gladly told her that Raise was being taken care of by Grayfia. A shiver of pity for both of them ran through her at the thought. The pair was as likely to get along as an angel and devil.

So today was the day that she had finally managed to get a bit of time from her busy schedule to meet the recovering illusionist and she jumped on the opportunity to do so. She quickly strode through the gates of the Gremory manor, the guards having long stopped even bothering to go through the normal process of entry, and flew up to Raise's garden. Except the devil that now inhabited Raise's garden was incredibly different from the young Gremory.

"Oh, it's you," Serafall said upon seeing the sight of the infamous maid of the Gremory, the second strongest female in the underworld, Grayfia Lucifuge. "What are you doing in his garden," she said, barely supressing the accusation in her tone.

"I'm fulfilling my duty and taking care of his garden, while he is still recovering," Grayfia said revealing that the Raise was still not entirely well. Grayfia turned away from Serafall and resumed watering the plants and the Leviathan took this time to admire Raise's garden. True to his words the greatest difference between before and currently was the pond in the middle of the garden containing two brightly coloured carp that swam around following each other. The flowers had also increased in volume and colour and now littered the garden. The fig tree bloomed properly next to the pond above and a multitude of ripe looking fruits hung down with the occasional fig on the ground or water surrounding it. The updated haven looked beautiful, a testament to the maid's skills.

"He is inside his room," Grayfia said straightening up from where she had been bent over holding a watering pail. She looked at Serafall for a moment, coldness in her silver eyes before she sighed. "I am unsure whether I should be happy or sad about you making time to talk to the young master," she said in a rather uncharacteristic manner for the normally stoic maid. "On one hand he will surely be happy that you've made the time to see him," she started causing a bit of guilt to well up inside of her. "But on the other you reinforce the worst in him. Raise is a good devil, and in time he will be a great devil, but if he keeps on doing the things that he's been doing it will only lead him to an early grave. Do you know how many nights that I've stayed awake hoping that he would just learn to curb his recklessness and rebelliousness? Far too many, and then I'm informed a few weeks ago that he's decided not to celebrate his birthday with his family this year, and then I find out that the trip that he went on for his birthday put him into a coma."

Serafall remained quiet at the sight of the visibly agitated maid. Grayfia struggled to put her feelings into words. "Don't make things worse," the Strongest Queen said with her eyes narrowed and a visible threat in her tone as she turned away from the Strongest Female Devil.

There were not many things that she could say to that. At least not many that wouldn't make her look like an outright villain, so Serafall swallowed her words and for the first time that she remembered stepped out of the garden and into Raise's room.

The first thing that hit her as soon as she crossed the threshold was dragons. Pictures of them littered the room and models adorned the shelves. Some of them Serafall recognised as famous dragons, some of them she had even met. The others were unknown to her, depicting generic dragons or dragons that Raise had just dreamed up. In the corner of the room a comparatively large statue of a dragon was being carved out of wood, half-finished and crude the only things that could be made out about it were the western dragon wings that spread out in mid-flight.

"Serafall," the familiar voice said and she turned her head to see Raise upright in his four poster bed wearing red pyjamas. "You came to visit," he said sounding happy but tired. He shook his head and the vestiges of sleepiness faded from his expression. He turned to his bedside and from the drawer pulled out the pocket watch that Serafall had given him for his last birthday. "At quite an inconvenient time."

"Sorry," she said contritely. "Work's been really hectic lately, but I should have made the time to see you, especially considering this was all my fault in the first place."

Raise shook his head absolving her of responsibility without even saying a word. "Hey can you feed my caterpillars," he said pointing to a glass box in the corner of the room opposite the unfinished dragon statue. "I would do it myself but if I get up I'm afraid that Grayfia will lose her mind."

"Yup, lets prevent her hair from turning even more white," Serafall said with a smirk just in case the maid was listening in. She walked over to the glass box and saw several dozen caterpillars munching away at a handful of leaves. To the side was another box filled with leaves and Serafall quickly took a handful of the foliage and dropped it into the clear box where the infant butterflies slowly edged towards their feast.

"So why is it a bad time?" Serafall asked, curious as to what could possibly fill up his schedule. Raise opened his mouth to open and then he was interrupted by a series of three distinct knocks on his bedroom door.

Raise sighed as if all the air was leaking out of him and he gestured at the door, causing it to open and reveal the visitor. A pale girl with sandy blonde hair done in elaborate fashion entered the room. She was a bit below five feet and wore a dark scarlet dress and gave a slight curtsey when she entered the room before she set her amber eyes upon Raise.

"How has the day been treating you so far Raise," she said slowly and Serafall recognized the talent of a person who deliberately made their voice as pleasing to the ear as possible. "I hope you're feeling better now."

"I've been better for a long time," he said. "My condition would further improve if everybody didn't panic the moment I try to get a breath of fresh air."

"But you were so injured," the girl said. "My heart nearly stopped when I saw you lie so still. I honestly thought you were dead."

Raise kept silent at that and Serafall took that as the perfect time to remind the pair of her existence with a polite noise.

"Ah," Raise said turning towards the Satan. "Serafall, Delilah. Delilah, Serafall."

"It's a pleasure to meet one of the Satan's," the young devil said executing a perfect curtsey. "I've heard so much about you from Raise," she continued smiling, although Raise was shaking his head out of sight so she wasn't sure how true the statement was.

"It's good to see somebody is looking out for him," Serafall said making the connection that this girl was most likely Raise's fiancé and her full name was most likely Delilah Bael. She hadn't heard of her before, but it was hardly an unusual state of affairs. Despite the relative scarcity of the devil race, it was beyond her to know every single devil's name. The fact that she hadn't heard of her before actually indicated that she hadn't caused a problem for Serfall and ended up named in one of the piles in her office.

"Ahh," the woman said as she glanced towards the glass in the corner of the room. "I see your familiars have already been fed today."

"Yes I asked Serafall to feed them," Raise said and Serafall watched as her face fell slightly. Apparently she had stumbled into something troublesome between the pair. But her smile crawled back onto her face almost immediately. "Mou," she said with a fake pout. "You're so mean. I loved feeding the caterpillars. None of the butterflies will eat my food."

"My butterflies are perfectly capable of living on flowers," Raise said. "There is no need for you to feed them sugary things," he continued hypocritically.

"Ahh," the woman said and the room faded into silence. Raise had an expression of slight impatience upon his face. "I see," she continued with another smile that lit up her face beautifully. "You want to catch up with your friend and I'm standing in the way."

She turned towards Serafall. "It was a pleasure meeting you Lady Leviathan. If it's not too presumptuous may I say that any friend of Raise is a friend of mine?"

"No that's fine," Serafall said glancing between the pair. "It was lovely meeting you Delilah. Let's meet another time."

At those words she gave a grateful smile before curtseying to Serafall. A huge blush covered her face as she turned towards her fiancé. "I love you Raise," she said before darting out of the room.

"She's quite something," Serafall said to the younger Gremory.

"Yes," Raise said and his body broke into fragments of light. Serafall watched with a fond smile as Raise, properly dressed in a pitch black and yet old-fashioned suit materialised in front of her. "She is pretty unique for a devil. I don't think I've seen a single member of our species exhibit this much goodwill so far."

"She reminds me a bit of you," Serafall said truthfully. While the pair was miles away in terms of disposition and looks, they both broke the mould on typical devil behaviour.

"She got me a walking stick," Raise said. "Can you imagine me with a walking stick? All I would need was a top hat and I would look like a stage magician.

Serafall snickered at the thought of Raise pulling card tricks on stage and then sat down on the bed. "Aren't you afraid of Serafall finding you out of bed?"

In reply Raise pointed a single finger towards the ceiling and Serafall looked up to the sight of a mass of butterflies above her. "Grayfia left when Delilah arrived," he said. "Right now she's talking with Sirzhecs."

"Ahh, that's convenient," Serafall said. "Sorry again about not seeing you earlier."

"Its fine," Raise said smiling. "But you not seeing me meant that I wasn't able to show you the breakthrough I made with Senjutsu."

"I actually forgot about that," Serafall said after a moment of recollection. "You said it was more impressive than primordial illusions. Well then dazzle me."

"Sorry but I'm going to have to give you a bit of theory first," Raise said starting to pace slowly. "I'll make it brief. Basically all the species in the world have their own source of power that is inherent to the species. Devils have their own darkish magic. Angels have their light energy. Most youkai have chakra. Some species have ki. Sometimes it's called willpower or spirit."

"Which one is the strongest," Serafall said raising her hand.

"Goddamit Serafall," Raise replied and then clutched his head. "Which one do you believe is the strongest," Raise said smiling as if he just told a joke.

"I'm going to be biased and say devils," Serafall said after a moment of thought.

"It's not," Raise said firmly. "That aside Senjutsu is a more primordial, more equidistant version of all of these types of energy. That's why it is able to heal any species and cast illusions on any enemy. That's why those who master Senjustu can interface with others very life-force or their own."

Serfall listened in rapt attention as Raise prevented theories that were probably unheard of among devilkind. "Well it couldn't be helped," she thought. "Devils cannot naturally grasp Senjutsu, Raise being a rare exception."

"If that is where the reach of Senjutsu stopped then that would be nothing much," Raise said folding his arms. A snap of his fingers and a cube of ice appeared in front of Serafall causing the Satan to deftly catch it. As soon as her fingers touched the ice she became intimately aware that she had encountered it before. How could she not considering…

"This is my ice," Serafall said looking at amazement at the block of condensed liquid that bore her unique signature. "You can replicate my ice."

"I can do more than that," Raise said and with a wave of his hand a spear appeared hovering in mid-air. But this was not an ordinary spear despite being one that Serafall had literally seen thousands of times before. Lifting her hand up; she touched the item not even wincing as the light construct singed the tips of her fingers.

"How?" she said, trying to find the correct words. "How?" she repeated, failing to find the correct words.

"It's not easy," Raise said dismissing the two constructs causing them to fade. "It requires both Senjutsu and high leve illusions and so it would be virtually impossible for any other devil to learn."

"Yes, but still," Serafall said trying to get the words out after seeing the impossible in front of her.

"Yes, light is the ultimate killer of devils," Raise said his expression fading away into something sorrowful. "Even high class devils can be killed by a single light arrow. Even monstrously powerful devils like my brother and yourself would be wary of taking any light attacks."

"What's wrong Raise," Serfall said with concern thick in her voice. While the secret he revealed was amazing, and she would definitely be asking him more about it later, right now his mental state was more important.

"It's nothing Serafall," Raise said looking away but the Satan refused to take that as an answer. Leaping up from the bed she grasped his shoulders and looked into his eyes causing him to look away. "Just because you have a hold on me doesn't mean I'm going to answer.

"Raise please," Serafall said leaning towards him. "Please," she repeated. "I'm worried. Something is different and it's definitely bugging you. I'm your friend. I care about you. And if I have to I'll hide away my paperwork and sneak in every day until you tell me what's wrong."

Raise was silent for a very long moment. Then; "Can I sit down," he said. Moving towards the bed, he collapsed on the edge of the bed.

"My parents are really pushing through with this marriage," he said, the words flowing from his tongue as if he couldn't get them out fast enough. "Ever since my birthday they've pushed the date up further and further and at the last date they did something incredibly foolish. Serafall do you know that they use the arena to moderate disputes. Well they tried to do the same between me and her. If I lose then I have to marry her. It's absurd," Raise said his voice steadily rising. "Why is everybody in this damned world so obsessed with power? But that's not the worst part." Raise took a deep breath and his voice returned to normal although Serafall could see his body physically shake.

"I can win," he said. "I know I can. But if I do then I show that anybody can challenge me for marriage. And if I win I would be showing off my illusions or Senjutsu, which would only increase my marriage prospects." He looked towards Serafall with the desperate look of a man who can only see one way out and dreads taking it. "Am I wrong Sera?"

"No," she admitted plotting the situation in her head. His logic and observations on devilkind held up.

"No I'm not wrong," he said letting out a tragically hollow laugh. "I can beat her, but if I keep getting challenged I will lose eventually. The only way," he said pausing mid-sentence. "The only way to prevent that is if I make them too scared to try again."

"What are you thinking Raise?" Serafall asked.

"I will accept the challenge as I must," he said pitifully. "And I will kill Delilah Bael."

 **Author Note: This was originally meant to be a one-shot.**

 **For the record this story takes place in the early sixteenth century. I've been trying to keep the time correct.**

 **Back to White Ink for now so don't expect another chapter soon.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	3. Chapter 3

The devil arena was a place that was originally created by Ajuka Beelzebub for the purpose of training younger devils in a time of peace. After the Three Factions War and the Underworld Civil War the remaining population of the underworld was divided into hardened veterans who had lived through these wars and the neophytes who had not been part of the conflict. Unfortunately there was no easily way to address the problem. Simply practicing their skills would have left the new devils with no experience and sparring could have easily led to a further reduction in the population. Devil magic at its best was destructive and it wasn't in the nature of young devils to hold back and show restraint.

Thankfully Ajuka came up with a solution to this problem and created the very first Extra-Spacial Rating Arena. Utilising the variable nature of the Dimensional Gap and using a highly advanced barrier that was far beyond the knowledge of Serafall he invented a system whereby devils could engage in tests of strength without the possibility of them dying. The system was eventually turned into a form of entertainment and a way to make money by several of the devil families and the Arena was born as a result. Ajuka was not unsatisfied with the result, while it was not quite what he originally intended it fulfilled the same purpose of providing exercise to the novices. Still it was only the very wealthy and those who were well connected with the Maou Beelzebub that could afford their own personal Extra-Spacial Rating Arena. The Maou Leviathan happened to be one of them.

With the sounds of bones shattering Raise's chest caved in and he became a pile of meat on the floor. Serafall didn't even blink at the carnage, instead scanning the room with her useless eyes and filtering the surrounding sounds with her incapable ears. Ice appeared around her and she immediately redirected it. While Raise's ability to create illusions of other people's magic was theoretically impressive it was ultimately ineffective if used against its original owner. A devil naturally built up resistance to their own element and resistance to their own specific magic was usually insane. Even if she didn't use her magic to take over the ice none of it would have actually done any damage to her.

The next second storm clouds appeared above her and bathed the sandy floor of the replicated arena in darkness. However this darkness didn't last long as they opened revealing countless raindrops of light. Serafall clicked her tongue in annoyance at the sight of them, Raise's imitation light was in no way inferior to the real thing and even though she was a Maou the energy of heaven still had the ability to prick her skin. Still this was nothing for her, an ultimate class devil that had survived through two wars. With a breath the heavens and earth froze over leaving the motes of light hanging above in the sky like twinkling stars. The entire arena was covered in a veil of ice and frost, with the exception of one specific spot. It was almost certainly a trap. The first few times she had been caught by that innocuous space and attacked what was essentially nothing.

Instead she focused on the surrounding ice to a deeper level, falling into the embrace of her magic and discarding the five deceived outside senses. She found the spot almost immediately; it was a small patch of ice that wasn't hers, no matter how much it tried to imitate the surrounding magic. A certain stiffness that was not found in her magic pervaded the spot and Serafall immediately focused on it.

"Found you," Serafall cried out with a smile wrapping ice to grasp the elusive younger devil. Despite her outward confidence she wasn't fully certain that she had got the right one. She wouldn't put it past Raise to play one more trick on her. But shortly her doubts were laid to rest.

"So you have," Raise observed almost languidly. Her eyes lay upon him fully encased in ice and yet his voice sounded as if he was only a metre away. "You've been getting better. I must think of a way to improve that problem.

"You've done pretty well already," Serafall said pouting at the thought of Raise once again covering up his weaknesses. Every time she learnt a trick to win the same one would not work in the future. She was running out of tricks dammit.

"Want to take a break," Raise offered. They had been duelling for over three hours now and the younger devil looked fatigued. He lacked the physical stamina of a fully mature devil let alone a maou.

"Are you sure you have time to rest?" Serafall said, teasing the younger devil. "You've only got three weeks until your match. If you don't train harder then I might have to help you find a best man." Her tone was light but it contained a very real warning.

"Delilah Bael is a high class devil," Raise said. "Do you think that a devil under ultimate class can beat me?"

"As long as you don't get cocky," Serafall said pouting at him. She couldn't say much against his first points. Raise was a monster for his age and his illusions made him almost undefeatable to the common devil. Still even the strongest could be taken down by somebody if they were caught off guard.

"I don't get cocky," Raise said, although the effects of his words were blunted by the fact that he was fully encased in ice. With a thought from Serafall the ice turned to water and Raise waded out with no visible signs of wetness upon him.

"Shall we go someplace warmer," the frosty Satan offered looking at the glacial surroundings. "I've started growing fruit trees in my gardens."

"That sounds nice," Raise said smiling at the thought of Serafall's garden. While she didn't work on it personally all the time like he did, she did hire gardeners to maintain it and she constantly renovated the landscape. Whenever she had taken him to the garden previously Raise had always swiftly pointed out the newest changes and showed his appreciation for the work done on it.

"Let's go then," Serafall said rushing to the door and holding it open for her crippled friend.

Raise sighed at her and snapped his fingers and Serafall watched as his body collapsed onto itself as it was being sucked into a single point only for the opposite to happen outside the room with a single point disgorging Raise in his entirety.

"Your illusions have gotten more elaborate," Serafall said watching the show. "Is there a reason why you aren't doing butterfly illusions? "

"My butterflies aren't well equipped to dealing with the cold," Raise said. "If I were to use illusions containing butterflies in sub-zero temperatures it would be too obvious that it was an illusion."

"Makes sense," Serafall said not admitting that she would have never have thought of that. "To the roof then," she said running to the nearest window and diving out through the cheap easily-replaceable glass. She flapped her wings as she soared into the sky. A moment later Raise joined her, hovering in the air with apparent effortlessness with a fond smile on his face. Despite how smooth his motions were he had informed her in confidence that this actually was very difficult to control.

Apparently to even do that much he had to create an illusion of blocks of solid air beneath his feet and then use Senjutsu to form condensed devil wind magic. For each movement he made he had to alter the illusion and he constantly had to channel Senjutsu, alter it to a specific amount of wind and then condense that wind into the illusion. Needless to say, for the amount of effort required to learn how to do this an average devil would just rely on their wings and their natural flight ability.

Landing gracefully on the roof Serafall watched as Raise landed next to her on the roof mirroring her poise. Serafall sat down crosslegged on the grass while Raise took a seat on the bench and they waited as a maid, a young girl from the extra devil families that Serafall had picked up brought them tea and biscuits.

"So you're still planning on 'that'?" Serafall said, with no need to elaborate on what 'that' was.

Raise went very quiet for a few moments. "I don't want to," he said. "But I have already found my resolve. If you can think of another way to get me out of this then please go ahead and enlighten me."

"Have you thought about taking another wife," Serafall started before Raise interrupted.

"No wives at all Serafall. I thought I made that part clear."

"Don't interrupt me Raise," Serafall stated flatly. He was obviously stressed and that was contributing to his uncharacteristic rudeness but she still didn't want him to just shrug her off. "I was going to say, 'Why don't you get a wife in name only.' Somebody that you're married to on paper but don't really have much to do with."

"That's how it starts Serafall," Raise said sighing as he looked down at his feet. "You give away a little bit and then people want more and more until you look back wondering when you lost so much."

"Speaking from experience," Serafall said as she picked up a cookie and gave it a bite.

"Why do you think I spent my birthday with you Serafall," Raise said looking at her. "It certainly wasn't because I'm getting on well with my parents at the moment."

"Maybe it's because of my natural charm," Serafall replied wriggling her eyebrows.

"You are certainly charming," Raise said with a chuckle causing Serafall to flush slightly.

"No fair," she said playfully. "Complimenting me like that. Are you trying to get me to fall for you also?"

"Let's not compound an already existing problem Sera," Raise said warmly but firmly. "Any better ideas."

"Have you tried speaking to Zekram," Serafall pointed out with very little help. "He might be able to get you out of the marriage. You could even give the same threat, I'm sure he doesn't want any of his members to be killed."

"We are talking about the same Zekram right?" Raise said giving Serafall a pointed look. "He probably arranged the whole thing in the first place. My parents were probably only too delighted to sell me out at the suggestion of our 'leader'." Raise put a strange inflection on the word 'leader'. It wasn't surprising that he did thought. Zekram Bael had no official title among the devil nobility but was generally hold in awe by even the extra clans. That combined with his almost omnipresent influence caused him to become an entity that no devil could easily afford to say no to. "Besides Zekram very seldom cares about individual devils, the death of Delilah wouldn't faze him at all."

"And yet he cares about you," Serafall pointed out,

"I wish he wouldn't," Raise said with some sullenness in his voice. Silence reigned for a few moments as the pair sat in the garden staring up at the purple sky.

"I could speak to him," Serafall offered. "She had occasional meetings with Zekram and she could casually ask him the next time she was in one of them if he could help with Raise's problems."

"If you think that will help," Raise said shooting the female Satan a sceptical look.

xxx

"No," Zekram Bael said, as he looked Serafall dead in the eyes with absolutely no willingness to relent. True to her words the Leviathan had organised a meeting with Zekram two weeks after her last bout with Raise and one week before the match. Currently Serafall was sitting in the arena eating excellent pie and after a 'riveting' discussion about trade of food stores between the devils and various smaller factions she had gotten onto the actual reason for which she wanted to speak with him.

"Why not?" Serafall said with some indignation. She had calmly and cleverly woven the topic into the discussion with the expertise of a master diplomat and Zekram Bael had shut her down immediately with barely a second's pause.

Zekram rubbed his eyes and straightened up becoming every inch the professional many devils pictured him as. "Firstly cancelling the wedding at this stage will bring damage to both my and the Gremory Clan's reputation." He held up his hand to forestall Serafall's rebuttal. "Yes I know I can easily fix that damage, that's not the only point I have. Why don't you sit down and eat your pie while I explain myself to you. I actually have the young Gremory's best interests at heart."

Serafall gave the elder devil a sceptical look but instead of speaking up she held her tongue and ate more of her delicious apple pie. She could be patient for a while but if she didn't like his answer then she wouldn't let the matter go. Zekram chuckled as if to mock her thoughts and she glowered at him.

"Firstly I have always taken an interest in talented upcoming youths," Zekram said leaning forward and looking Serafall straight in the eye as he poured himself another cup of tea. "Can you deny that Raise is a talented youth?"

It was a rhetorical question and thus Zekram remained quiet for the requisite ten seconds before he resumed speaking. "There are occasionally devils that have true potential for greatness but lack resources or contacts or sometimes even just a place to show their worth. So I introduce them to somebody who would nurture their potential or I employ them or I just give them some advice. I'm doing the same thing with your young devil lover."

"He's not my lover," Serafall said giving Zekram an annoyed look to which the elder devil merely nodded as if he didn't care.

"Regardless of your relationship with him you must realise the problem that the young devil companion has. I've really seen a young devil display such disdain for society. If he was to be left alone then he would probably end his days in isolation somewhere alone and forgotten."

Serafall automatically opened her mouth to dispute that and then stopped as words that Raise had said before processed in her brain. She had forgotten how scarily good a judge of character Zekram could be. Serafall could easily see an isolated garden with Raise as its only inhabitant.

"That's not enough," Serafall said doing the math in her head. "You might value him as a powerful devil but not much to give away one of your family members. An alliance with the Gremory or the possibility of a powerful devil is not sufficient."

Zekram sipped at his tea with a blank look upon his face. "I would hardly call it a possibility," he started. "Raise is certain to become powerful; in fact he is already as you would know from your sparring sessions."

"Go on," Serafall said deciding to ignore the fact that he knew about their sparring sessions. The oldest devil's voyeuristic tendencies were not something that she really wanted to address at this current moment.

"He reminds me of somebody," Zekram admitted putting down his teacup. His expression was deadly serious and Serafall waited in silence for an answer that didn't seem to come. "Raise Gremory reminds me of Lord Lucifer."

"Sirzhecs," Serafall blurted out trying and failing to see some resemblance between the two. While they might superficially resemble each other they couldn't differ more in both power and temperament. Zekram gave her an unimpressed but Serafall ignored that as she continued to sip her tea, mulling over his words as she did so.

"No the first Lucifer," Zekram said leaning back into his chair. He looked to the ceiling and Serafall saw a side of him that she doubted anybody living had ever seen as a look of fond recollection showed on his face.

Serafall deliberately swallowed her tea and deliberately avoided spitting it out over her host. "Raise reminds you of the first Lucifer?" she asked digesting that statement with the ease of a mouse eating a mountain. "How?" she asked trying to link Raise and the arrogant, conquering devil that she had heard about so much when she was a young girl.

"In many ways," Zekram said and Serafall got the feeling that despite answering her questions his focus was not truly on her. "His rebellious nature, his quiet confidence, his stubborn determination and like the first Lucifer he can also control light."

"Your spies are really getting too much old man," Serafall said dropping her respectful manner of speech as she glared at one of the influential devils in the underworld.

"My apologies," Zekram said refocusing on the Satan in front of her rather than the dead one from his past. "I suppose I must have sounded like one of the Old Satan Faction for a moment."

"Just a little," Serafall said eating her biscuit with a hard look in her eye.

"Believe me I hold no belief in the right to rule of those pitiful imitations of their ancestors," Zekram said. "I won't even place the other Satans in the same league as the first Lucifer." Zekram looked genuinely regretful for a moment. "It's actually a genuine pity you did not get the chance to meet him."

Serafall sipped her tea in a measured fashion as silence filled the room. She had no clue when she started the discussion on trading routes that this would ever be discussed. If Zekram's regard for the original Lucifer got out it could only affect the Old Satan's faction positively.

"I won't tell if you don't," she said to Zekram as she got up from the chair. Her head was spinning and she honestly needed some alone time to digest the information that she had gotten. She walked towards the door opening up the elaborately carved wooden egress before she stopped.

"Was he really that incredible," she said trying to understand how Zekram Bael, the single most significant devil in the Underworld, a man whose support of the new ruling Satans managed to eradicate any threat from the lines of Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan and Asmodeus.

"More than you can comprehend," Zekram said with finality, his statement really saying nothing.

"I see," Serafall said. There was no other reply she could give to a statement like that. "Have a good day Zekram."

"And you as well, Lady Leviathan."

xxx

"Man Serafall, you haven't been yourself today," Severean Agares said as he handed out documents from his clan to the weary Satan. "I mean did somebody kill your dog or something? What's with the long face?"

"Sorry Severean," Serafall said as she took the papers briefly scanning them before putting them down on the table. I've been busy and this thing with Raise is really stressing me out."

"Want me to go over there and knock some sense into him," the mature and distinguished devil said childishly clicking his knuckles as he did so.

"I swear the two of you cannot stand each other," exasperation at the two of them clear in her voice.

"He's might kill me in future Serafall," Severean said, looking at her as if she had caught insanity. "Why on Earth would I want to be close to that guy?"

"You're really quite serious about that, aren't you?" Serafall said giving Severean a contemplating look.

"As the grave," Severean said winking at the Satan causing Serafall to groan. "Want to grab a bite to eat with me and you can regale me with the troubles that the little bastard has gotten into now."

"Sure," Serafall replied after a moment's contemplation. While Severean could be irritating, picking after every scrap of her attention, he wasn't a bad person. He had fought in both devil wars, sometimes under her command and he had always acquitted himself well. "Know any good restaurants?"

"Nah," Severean said shaking his head. "Your tastes are much more refined than mine. If I were to pick a place to eat it would undoubtedly disappoint you."

"Okay," Serafall said deciding not to indulge her curiosity at the current time. "We can go to the usual place."

"The usual place," Severean started out and then seemed to gain an insight. "Are you talking about that Chinese place I've seen you eating at?"

"Japanese," Serafall corrected him immediately and Severean made a gesture indicating that he didn't really care about the numerous differences between the two human cultures. "And yes I am. That is where I usually go."

"Well then lead the way," Severean said with an overdramatic bow and Serafall was only too happy to oblige. A swift magic circle and the room, and her huge piles of paperwork were gone.

xxx

Akuma Ryori was the name of the restaurant that Serafall's family frequented and Serafall had a persistent problem in remembering the name. It was a quirk of the devils ability to translate but proper names would often not get converted into the devil tongue as the meaning behind the terms were different. Therefore to this day Serafall had no idea what the name of the restaurant actually meant. Thankfully the same thing did not apply to the restaurant menu and thus Serafall was easily able to discover her favourites.

"I will have anything that isn't fish," Severean said to one of the young pretty waitresses nearby who was diligently taking down his order.

"That's a really vague order," Serafall admonished him and directed the grateful waitress to simply give him the same thing that she ordered.

"I hate those oceanic vermin," Severean said with surprising vehemence for one who was normally so easy going. "Honestly I can't see how you can eat that garbage?"

Serfafall shrugged at that, not caring at all about Severean's hatred of fish and the waitress chose that moment to leave with their orders of food and drink. The awkward silence persisted as Severean fiddled with the cufflinks of his jacket and Serafall simply sat back deep in ponderous thought that seemed to never leave her these days.

"So what's got you in such a fit Serafall," Severean said as he leaned forward staring into the eyes of the Satan. His face showed nothing but interest and complete concentration as he focused on her.

"Umm," Serafall said suddenly feeling awkward at this point. The tournament was in three days' time and while that had been causing her a bit of unrest it was nothing in comparison to the turmoil caused by the words that Zekram had spoken. Raise reminded him of the first Lucifer. Truthfully not much concrete was known about the angel who rebelled against his father. While it was commonly believed he created the devil race and that he wielded light and used to be an angel; none of these things had ever been confirmed by a reputable source and a lot of information about him had disappeared after his death in the Great War. Nevertheless Lucifer still stood today as the archetypal devil; a bastion of sin and cruel ambition that was worshipped by a good portion of the devil population.

Now how the hell could she divulge that to Severean? While she had worked with the man for a long time and ranked him as a good acquaintance she didn't trust him enough to reveal this secret about Raise, a man he claimed to dislike even if she was still sceptical about the possibility of them ever meeting in battle, separated by age and temperament as they were.

"I tried to get Zekram to call off the wedding, but I was unsuccessful," Serafall said revealing a partial truth to get him off her back. "He didn't want to discuss the possibility at all."

"Well that's understandable," Severean said as the waitress returned with two cups of tea. He took a sip savouring the liquid as she left the table and he placed the cup down as he looked into Serafall's eyes once again. "From what I've heard, Zekram had been interested in the young Gremory for a long time."

"Really?" Serafall asked. While the words that he said weren't to shocking, the tone that he used promised future implications that weighed far more than those few utterances.

"It was quite a big thing among certain social circles about a decade ago, I'm surprised you haven't heard of it," the Agares clansmen said drawing out the topic like a hook in front of the annoyed shark that was Serafall.

"Tell me now," Serafall demanded restraining herself from leaping from the chair and shaking the coy bastard. If she did so then her parents might just read about the flickering embers of romance between the two of them in the morning paper. The results of that could be imagined and she really didn't want to start her parent planning a wedding, Raise was enough of a problem at the moment.

"I heard," Severean started in a low voice. "That about a decade ago Zekram wanted to test out the new Gremory heir. You know, to see if any of his brother had rubbed off on him."

"I already know that," Serafall said with only the faintest tinge of annoyance in her tone.

"Really," Severean said raising an eyebrow. "Then I suppose you also know that both of them were admitted to hospital with severe injuries."

"What?" Serafall said and this time she didn't give a damn who heard her. She had known that Raise had been hurt in that match as his power of destruction destroyed his muscles but she had no idea, she couldn't even conceive that Zekram had also been injured by a five year old Raise. "How," she said narrowing her eyes.

"His injuries were consistent with damage from the Power of Destruction and the majority of the people who knew just assumed he got into a scuffle with Sirzhecs and that the Lucifer kicked his ass," Severean said giving a chuckle as he did so.

Serafall would have also laughed at the image if the matter wasn't so serious. She had always had the inkling that Raise was powerful but she had no idea that his strength was that freakish, even as a child. The idea of strange mutants that were naturally born with great power was not unknown to the devil race, but they were rare. In the entire devil race only she and Sirzhecs were mutants and now from what she heard Raise was as well. Even the idea of him blowing up his muscles sounded far more likely now considering she had almost frozen herself to death in her youth as her body couldn't withstand her own magic.

"That sucks," Serafall said failing to find any better words to explain the situation. "But it explains why Zekram has such high hopes for Raise."

"What high hopes?" Severean asked and Serafall realised that she hadn't actually said much about Raise's supposed resemblance to Lucifer. That wasn't something that she would go announcing to Severean however, for fairly obvious reasons. However her resolve to keep her mouth shut was shattered by the next few words.

"Does he expect him to grow up to be a new Lucifer or something?"Severean said in a casual voice that somehow still managed to ice over her blood and the Leviathan was forced into a lie.

"No," Serafall said immediately before clamming up and staring down Severean as if daring him to say another word. Her brief hope that she nailed it swiftly died as she saw Severan's dumbfounded look. He put down his tea and started to speak only to close his mouth again. The waitress chose that time to return with their requested dishes but Severen barely seemed to notice. He didn't avert his eyes from Serafall the whole time even when the noodles were placed in front of him and even when the waitress inquired if he wanted anything else, in a tone that bordered on flirtatious, he merely shook his head his eyes locked on her own. Only when the waitress left hearing distance did he once again start to speak.

"What the hell Serafall," Severean said as nervous amusement replaced his shocked look. "I suggest that he might turn out to be like his brother and you bite my head off. Is there now a blood feud between you and Sirzhecs I don't know about?"

It was at this point that the magnitude of her error became apparent to Serafall and she felt an intense desire to bang her head against the fine wooden tables of this establishment. Of course Severan was talking about Sirzhecs; that made so much sense in the context. They were brothers and both possessed the same Power of Destruction. It was perfectly logical that Severean would associate the two of them. He was still looking at her strangely and Serafall once more had to string together a believable lie.

"Sirzhecs and I…," Serafall started before Severean held up his hand forestalling any explanation.

"Do you know that your lips twitch a moment before you start to lie," he said causing Serafall to blush at being caught in the act. "For a diplomat and somebody who is a leader in the government you would think that you your ability to conceal the truth would be better."

"Hey I got appointed to head of external relations on the strength of my open and friendly personality," Serafall said defensively, hoping that this would be enough to change the topic.

"The first thing you heard when I was talking about the Lucifer was the first one," Severean said. "That blasted Zekram must be rapturous at a chance of a replacement for that monster. No we don't want anything else and we would really appreciate Zekram not overhearing our conversation, so could you be a dear and move." That last sentence was said to the waitress who came to the table, supposedly to check if everything was alright and allegedly to eavesdrop. Her face went white and she turned away without another word confirming Severean's response.

"Fucking Zekram," he said. "Okay so the old man has big plans for him, what does that change?"

"Nothing really," Serafall said taking another sip of her tea. "Just surprised, worried that he could take the same path as the Lucifer."

"Unlikely but possible," Severean said as he put down his tea. "In the same way as the sun not rising tomorrow is unlikely but possible. While I admit there are futures that he goes down that path there have also been futures where both you and Sirzhecs do the same. Maybe you should worry about the short term things and leave all the things over about three years to yours truly."

"Focus on the wedding, okay," Serafall said agreeing with her fellow devils words and resolving herself. "I can do that. I'm going to go visit Raise right now."

"Before you at that could you also get the bill," Severean said as he shamelessly took another bite of his food. "I have no credit at this restaurant and my wallet is in my other pants."

"After I pay I will go and see Raise," Serafall amended her statement.

xxx

Serafall had once visited the devil weather prediction centre when she was younger. While devils didn't give much weight to predicting the future, except for the lunatics in the Agares clan, they did nevertheless expend some effort in order to predict the harsh weather that certain portions of the Underworld were occasionally subjected to. She had found it rather boring to be honest. The complex magical arrays that were consistently maintained by low-class devils was a specific type of boring that evolved into a soul crushing depression over time that Serafall could not tolerate. Still she had heard from her father multiple times that they were constantly failing in their forecasts, usually as he came back drenched or sunburnt. Still the current weather was almost certainly not something that they could predict.

A black cloud nearly two miles in diameter covered the entire Gremory manor pouring a steady stream of rain over the lavish home of the family. Trees bowed under harsh winds and bursts of thunder illuminated the cloudy skies while the cracking of thunder overpowered the steady pouring of the rain. This freak storm, while tremendous, wasn't unheard of in the Underworld and many would attribute it to a large amount of devil energy accumulating in the atmosphere, unlike humans who would probably attribute it to one of their deities. Still it wasn't as if Serafall disliked the rain. As a matter of the fact she loved the wet weather, a feat that she always had attributed to her Sitri blood. Without a pause in her step Serafall fashioned an umbrella of ice before she stepped into the downpour. Like a fish in water Serafall proceeded through the gate, giving a nod to the beleaguered guard, who understandably remained in the warmth of his guardhouse and stepped into the waterlogged and muddy fields of the manor.

"I hope Raise's garden isn't destroyed," Serafall said with a pang of worry. While it could be considered a bit of an odd thought considering the importance of the upcoming wedding and the general inexpensive nature of the garden, Serafall had spent a lot of time and formed a lot of memories in that garden recently and it would kill Raise to see his precious hideout damaged.

Serafall didn't hesitate in unfurling her wings and flying to the location in which she had spent so much time and formed so many memories. It took almost no time for her to arrive at the garden and Serafall was honestly surprised to see that the garden hadn't metamorphosed at all from her last visit, in stark contrast to its nearly constant evolution. The deluge of the storm was almost omnipresent and yet the garden still stood unyielding under the constant unrelenting rain in comparison to the surrounding Gremory lands. A lone figure stood in the garden under the meagre comfort of a pure white umbrella and to Serafall's surprise it wasn't Raise.

Amber eyes locked onto Serafall as she approached and she saw the other devil widen her eyes in surprise before she bowed her head to the Leviathan. Delilah Bael looked enchanting in the slimming brown overcoat that she wore.

"Greetings Lady Leviathan," she said to Serafall with all the poise and decorum that could be expected from one of the members of the 72 pillars.

"Call me Serafall," the female leviathan replied. She had already accepted her as a friend the first time they meant and she wasn't big on the whole formality thing in the first place. "Were you looking for Raise?" she asked the exceedingly obvious question. If she wasn't looking for Raise then she wouldn't be in his garden. However Serafall was surprised when the young female devil shook her head.

"There would be no benefit to go and look for him," she said and pointed towards a lone butterfly carefully disguised among the flowers and untouched by the horrendous storms. "I am confident that he is well aware of what is going on right now." Despite the topic of her conversation there was nothing but a light smile on her face.

"If you know he's there then why don't you call out to him," Serafall said trying to figure the girl out. "Try to get him to come and at least speak with you."

Her response was only a light giggle. "Do you think I would be able to force him to do anything he did not want to?" She shook her head ignoring Serafall's shocked expression. "I am not unaware of the circumstances of this wedding. I would have to be blind to not see that Raise has no desire to get married at all, let alone with me."

"Then why are you forcing this wedding," Serafall said abandoning all decorum as she turned towards the young Bael and stared straight into her eye. "Do you really want to marry under these circumstances?"

"I have my own circumstances, Lady Serafall…Serafall," she corrected seeing the female Leviathans glare. "Lord Bael wants this to go forward and I have neither the strength nor status to resist him. Even if I did," she started cutting off the words of anger that Serafall had towards that shrivelled old bastard, "then I would probably agree to this anyway."

"Why?" Serafall said after a moment. Her words were spoken with such gravity that Serafall couldn't shake them off.

"Getting married to Raise is not the worst thing to happen," Delilah said. "If Lord Bael didn't desire this marriage than I would probably be forced to become a concubine to one of my cousins to preserve our bloodline," she said and her voice was bitter. "If this marriage doesn't go through than that will probably be the only option that is left for me. Not all of us have the power and strength of will to defy our family. In fact the vast majority of them do not and I am included in that number."

Serafall remained silent at that. Nothing that she had said had been wrong and she was quite correct to say that she was obviously not the main force behind this union. Zekram Bael was far more deserving of Serafall's contempt than this woman before her. Her earlier declaration of friendship had been… insincere for lack of a better word. A combination of the politeness demanded of a Satan and a desire not to make things any more difficult for Raise. Subconsciously she had already registered Delilah as the enemy; an outside influence that threatened to tear down the life of her best friend. She forced down the guilt that flooded her and resolved to avoid such quick categorisation in future.

"I actually really admire him for that," Delilah continued with a smile despite the subject of her speech. "I can only aspire to have half as strong a will as he does. But my will is not weak either. Even though I did not choose this path, I am grateful that I have been bestowed this chance and I resolve to follow it with all I have. I believe in years, decades or even centuries of marriage, love will blossom between us. That is my determination."

"I wish you luck," Serafall said and even she was not able to determine whether she was lying or not.

"Thank you Serafall," Delilah said with her ever-present smile as she unfolded her wings. "I am sorry for taking up your time and boring you with my story. Allow me to leave so that you can speak with Raise."

"You don't have to," Serafall started to say only for Delilah to shake her head.

"I have already been far too rude in showing up when I'm clearly not wanted," she said and with a quick bow to her social superior she took off from the balcony and away from Raise's garden leaving Serafall alone in the rainy grounds.

"That was... quite depressing," Raise's voice disrupted the patter of the rain and Serafall watched with exasperation as bolt of lightning struck the ground revealing Raise. Even after such a discussion he still wouldn't stop using his flamboyant illusions for every entrance.

"It really is far harder to dislike somebody when you truly know them," Serafall said as she sat down on the bench.

"Not particularly," Raise said as he sat down next to her. "I dislike Zekram and I'm fairly certain I have him pretty well figured out."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Serafall said under her breath. Her words were quashed by the sound of the rain and didn't reach Raise's ears.

"How have you been Serafall," Raise said as he reclined into his chair and stared up at the heavens, somehow managing to avoid any drops hitting him in the eye.

"Worried," Serafall responded. "About you mainly. I'm far more interested in finding out how you are doing. Feel confident for the match."

"I am," Raise replied still not looking at Serafall. "I've been training by myself every day." He paused for a moment, his face reflective. "It's been the first time that I've ever gone to be exhausted. I've even had to drop my illusions sometimes due to running out of juice."

"Your illusions still seem to be in place now though," Serafall said looking at his body and seeing no mangled wing or leg.

"I'm currently in training," Raise responded. "I don't have much time left until the match and I'm not going to let any of this time go to waste."

"Really," Serafall said. She hadn't seen any signs of training but then again for all she knew this Raise could be nothing but an illusion. She frowned and gave Raise a light tap on the forehead causing his head to whip backwards.

"What the hells Serafall," Raise said disbelief in his voice and in every action. He spluttered for a moment before shaking his head and sitting down again, but Serafall's instincts screamed that that he was no longer on the bench. "That caught me off guard," he said smiling ruefully. "I suppose I should train my awareness as well."

"Cut the crap Raise, you've actually always been amazing at awareness," Serafall responded. "Isn't good perception a requirement for illusions in the first place? You really must be tired if I can so easily catch you off guard. Just make sure not to over-train and to rest before the match."

"Yes mom," Raise said rolling his eyes before he went quiet. Raise's relationship with his parents was a constant magic trap that Serafall had no desire to intrude on and set off. While the Gremory's were not bad parents as far as devils go, but their continued association with Zekram, somebody Raise truly despised and the whole mess with the marriage had burnt many of the good feelings that the youngest Gremory had for them.

"Were you listening to us," Serafall said changing the subject. Raise faded away and a plate of sandwiches appeared where he was sitting.

"Yes," her friend replied with his voice coming from everywhere before he appeared sitting cross-legged on the grass under the tree that he had so diligently cultivated. "I overheard everything. She has been here for a few hours before you arrived."

"Did you speak to her all during that time," Serafall said only for Raise to shake his head. She drew in a breath at the thought of it. If that was done to her then she would be furious but Delilah seemed to be a much more patient woman.

"She just meandered around my garden and spoke to me about herself and her hopes for the marriage," Raise said. "Some of her words were…" Raise started to speak and then full silent as he mulled over her words. "She and I are alike in a way."

"Really," Serafall said inspecting her friend. She couldn't see many similarities between the two despite being young pureblood and involved in an arranged marriage.

"Both of us are expected to do our duty as members of our family," Raise began. "Both of us are forced into a marriage. But where she fights for the best path that her family will allow, I will blaze my own path with or without my family."

'Wow,' Serafall thought. Apparently the things at the Gremory Manor were even worse than she thought. "Has any of what she said changed your mind?"

"I don't really like to think of it Serafall," Raise said closing his eyes, looking quite peaceful for the moment. "But no it has not. It has only reaffirmed it. If Delilah lacks the power to be free of her situation then I will free her permanently."

"Do you really think that death is better…?" Serafall started.

"Then becoming a concubine for a person you hate," Raise said. "Imagine being stuck in a permanent prison where she would be forced to serve them and give herself to them and bare children carrying the genes of those bastards!" His voice was picking up in intensity near the end of his sentence and then he sighed, speaking more softly. "I have informed her that there was a great chance that she could die in the upcoming fight and she still decided to go ahead with it rather than succumbing to that fate. I will respect her wishes and give her a much preferred death."

"And what about you," Serafall said shifting gears. "Are you sure you can go through with killing her. It isn't easy for a first timer to kill and it changes you Raise. To be frank I don't think it's in your nature. Do you honestly believe that you will be able to pull it off?"

"The alternative is so much worse though," Raise pointed out before smiling. "Don't worry about me Serafall. While now it may look dark and stormy, you must not forget that there behind the storm clouds," as he said that he raised his right arm up towards the sky and something unbelievable happened. The wind went still, the persistent rain reversed its fall, the thunder cut out midway and the lightning dimmed before the black clouds that blotted out the sky cracked like glass, shattering and forming fractals that broke into smaller fragments that dissolved into the air revealing a radiant sun that lit up the purple sky.

"Wow," Serafall said as she tried to find some better words. She tore her eyes off the sky that was previously covered with ominous clouds to see Raise asleep leaning against the tree. His leg mangled in its usual manner. Very little magic emanated from his body but his breath was still steady and strong. "Magic exhaustion," Serafall said shaking her head. "Raise you are one scary kid," she voiced her thoughts aloud before she leant down to pick up the slumbering devil and bring him to bed.

xxx

'The Arena was unusually loud today,' Serafall thought as she reclined in her personal box, not her family's personal box but one that was given to her by Ajuka. The source of the cacophony that engulfed the arena was easily seen by the sharp-eyed Satan. Nearly all of the seating was filled and every box had at least a couple members of whichever family owned it present. Sirzhecs seemed to take the same approach as he stood alone in his box with only his wife and waved as he saw her, which she returned.

Down below Serafall was treated to a spectacle of two female devils fighting in an all-out brawl of fists and magic. Their magic was powerful but far too one dimensional. One of them seemed to use exclusively earth magic and the other was a Vapula as evidenced by the multiple ethereal lions that accompanied her. Whatever their dispute was they had an unreasonably grand stage on which to settle it. Hordes of crowds were drawn by news of a marriage dispute between Raise Gremory previously unknown brother of the Lucifer, heir to the Gremory and Delilah Bael the granddaughter of Zekram Bael and a proud member of the Bael clan, that would be settled in a contest of strength. All of these previous fights with younger devils lucky, or unlucky, enough to be fighting on this day served as mere appetisers for the main event.

The ever present noise of the crowd rose to a crescendo as the not-Vapula obtained a literal landslide victory over her opponent, as the woman and her lions were buried under the ground for an instant before the winner was announced and they were both teleported out of the arena. The cheering died down as words far above the arena appeared showing the long anticipated match causing a susurration throughout the arena as the other devils waited in anticipation. Even Serafall's felt her nerves start to flare up in anxiety. She felt that she would honestly be less nervous if she was down there herself.

The doors on either side of the arena opened and Serafall watched as Delilah Bael slowly walked in with nobility and grace that was absent from almost all other devils at her age. She looked calm and composed, an image of a demure beauty, and Serafall could practically feel the jealousy that was directed towards Raise at that moment. However envy was not the only thing felt by the surrounding devils. Delilah had not showcased her abilities at all until now and like Raise she was a total unknown. Zekram probably wouldn't send her out if she was weak but only time would show how strong she actually was.

As a stark contrast to the grace of Delilah Raise did not appear to walk in at all; instead appearing from the ether and startling the great majority of spectators. He looked confident and rather dapper dressed in his black suit. His hands were in his pockets and he eyed up his opponent with a blank expression on his face that Serafall was able to easily pick up due to her enhanced vision.

"It's not too late to give up," Raise said breaking the silence, his voice a few decibels higher allowing it to carry over the stadium. "If you just walk away from this marriage agreement then we will have no quarrel. You won't be hurt," he finished as his eyes narrowed at his opponent.

"Well he's blown it now," Serafall said directing her face to her palm and watching as Sirzhecs mirrored her movements from across the stadium. Originally the terms of the match were vague and the surrounding devils only knew it as to do with marriage causing overwhelming speculation that Raise wanted to marry Delilah or wanted to show his power off to obtain a wife or something along these lines. Right until Raise not only brought up the marriage agreement but stated that he rejected it, the equivalent of a slap to the collective faces of both the Gremory and the Bael.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Raise," Delilah said her voice carrying over the explosion of conversation in the stand. She was still smiling, unbothered by the surrounding devils. "I will also return that warning to be careful and not get hurt."

"Then don't blame for dropping my politeness," Raise said.

"I would never blame you for that," Delilah replied.

"The match will commence in 3...2...1..." the announcer devil said in a voice that couldn't quite contain his excitement.

At the sound of 1 magic power exploded throughout the arena and the pocket dimension seemed to creak under the oppression. Currents of magic coalesced into balls of destruction in the hands of Delilah who tossed them towards her foe only for them to be blocked by slabs of ice that appeared dispersing the Power of Destruction with the resilience of her ice.

"Ultimate Class," the announcer cried out, the sheer excitement in his voice unable to be contained. "They're both Ultimate class."

He had evidently based his assumption on the outpouring of magic in the beginning and not in the first exchange, but he was proven quickly correct as Delilah replied to Raise's defensive efforts with a salvo of beams containing the Power of Destruction that tore through Raise's ice shields and passed straight through Raise as if he was intangible. Suddenly Delilah dodged to the side for seemingly no reason. She barely had finished that manoeuvre before she fired off a ball of the Power of Destruction which impacted with something invisible before the invisible thing cracked into pieces. That seemed to be the trigger however as those invisible blades appeared in larger and larger number and Delilah was forced to move faster and faster to dodge or destroy them all.

"I'm not quite sure what is going on ladies and gentlemen," the announcer said excited but confused. "It seems that Raise Gremory has some kind of invisible attack. Is this the end for Delilah Bael." Unlike the announcer Serafall could easily tell that it was those wind platforms that Raise had used by combining illusions and Senjutsu. A slight modification to the magic had allowed him to turn the supplementary skill into a series of invisible wind blades. It seemed that Raise had really been training on the sly.

Raise hadn't been the only person who was hitting the gymnasium as Delilah Bael erupted with a pulse of Destruction that quickly dispersed before she set up a wave in a random direction. The wave broke upon another wall of ice and dispersed but not before beams of the power of destruction tore through the surrounding area hitting nothing. The illusion of Raise on the field faded away and he appeared in a different location.

"Was that teleportation ladies and gentleman," the announcer called out. "Some form of invisibility or illusions. We'll just have to f…" The announcer fell silent as Raise chose to respond that second. The place that Delilah Bael stood in a second before had turned to molten slag as a bolt of lightning obliterated that position. Apparently wide eyed looks of disbelief was the order of the day as silence reigned. Not only had one of the competitors summoned a real lightning bolt, not a mere magical imitation, but the other competitor had managed to dodge the impossibly fast natural disaster.

Serafall couldn't dodge a bolt of lightning, how the hell co… she's sensing the magic. Serafall came to this conclusion after only a bit of thought. It was literally the only thing that made sense, but in this case explaining the trick did nothing to diminish its impact. Sensing the magic was how most devils broke illusions and it didn't really work on Raise's illusions. She would have to be proficient at magic detection to an absurd degree to be able to pull this off, let alone in the middle of combat.

Still it wasn't perfect, Serafall considered as she watched a hurricane slam into her previous position before dispersing into blades that angled towards her vitals. The power of destruction was used as a shield by her to prevent the onslaught and that was when Raise made his move, although most devils without Serafall's familiarity with the subject matter would not have seen what happened. Under the cover of his own magical energy the invisible Gremory had launched a swift Senjutsu enhanced strike between her shoulder blades. It was effective and she stumbled for a bit but so was Delilah's counterattack as the power of destruction burst up from the space behind her slamming into Raise in the brief second before he retreated backwards quickly, his skin blistered and burnt from the brief contact.

The announcer was ignored by Serafall as she focused on the fight below. That was a perfect attack from the blind spot and there should be no way that Delilah would have anything prepared. Yet somehow in an instant she had counterattacked with no gestures or words or even a magical circle. Her eyes swept the grounds before they widened in alarm as she saw what the young Bael did and for the first time in the fight she sincerely worried for Raise's health.

Raise straightened his body up, and Serafall watched as his wounds disappeared. He seemed unconcerned outwardly and Serafall watched as he scanned the arena. "I see," he said. "You must practice here a lot."

"I do," Delilah said smiling with an almost embarrassed look.

"Obviously you do considering your magic power has seeped into the very earth, and incubated beneath my feet," Raise said frowning.

"I am a devil you know," Delilah said in a voice that sounded rather cute considering the circumstances. "There isn't a law against it and so I simply had to take advantage."

As she spoke the Power of Destruction rose up from the ground forming pools of pure destructive magical energy. These pools joined up and formed lakes and Raise was forced to abandon the ground as a sea formed below his feet. He stood up in the air looking down upon his opponent.

"You would have won," Delilah said suddenly as she stood in the middle of that ocean of destruction. "I can already feel myself weakening from that last punch. You got me pretty good."

"I will still win," Raise said quietly in a voice that covered the stadium. "Please give up Delilah," he repeated. "Please just leave and go home."

"You can still fight against this," Delilah said and this time there was a genuine look of shock in her gentle features. "Even against this." Raise silently nodded. "I'm really not in your league, am I?" she started. "No Raise," she continued looking up at him without flinching and the entire ocean of destruction started to writhe like it was alive before it slowly rose up. "That is not a path I will choose."

"Venus Descending," Raise said his voice unnaturally steady. His face was hard and showed no emotion but his eyes were screaming his reluctance. In his hands a ball of light appeared and rapidly grew from ten centimetres to twenty, from twenty to forty, from forty to a metre and by the time that the oncoming tidal wave Destruction approached it had grown to thirty metres and burned like the sun forcing all devils to look away. The power of destruction evaporated in the light, burnt away like morning dew on an erupting volcano and then Raise thrust downwards.

This match had no longer become fun as the killing orb descended on the earth boiling the ocean of Destruction and physically melting the grounds of the Arena. Delilah Bael struggled valiantly as more and more of her clan's Power of Destruction was expelled from her body in an endless stream fuelled by a desperate attempt to survive, but not once did she surrender or even cry for mercy. Until the very second the orb impacted her body her eyes were resolute and then there was silence as the orb reached the floor.

Every devil in the stadium had their eyes upon Raise as he hung there with no expression on his face. His eyes cold and uncaring as he stared at the devastation below, but Serafall had no time to admire the skill of Raise's illusions. She ducked out of her booth and moved with the speed of a concerned Satan to the last place she had felt Raise's magic. She hit the ground hard in the wilderness an impressive distance from the Arena. While normally she would have no possible way to pick up on Raise's illusions, his magic was fluctuating crazily now and Serafall was treated to the sight of Raise stumbling crazily along the ground.

"Raise," she called out with worry. She had never seen him lose his composure like this. His magic felt physically broken and his body flickered as wounds appeared along with his crippled limbs before flickering out of existence again. "Raise I'm worried about you," Serafall tried again. "Raise," she outright shouted trying to get the Gremory's attention.

It succeeded too well as Raise turned his head towards the Leviathan and a bestial snarl formed on his lips. Tears streamed freely from his eyes and there was a look of near insanity on his face. None of these things were the thing that caught Serafall's attention however. That honour belonged to the colossal image of a scarlet horned dragon that formed over the Gremory. With endless eyes containing impossible levels of power. For a second Serafall's heart stopped and she felt as if the dragon would physically rip its path out of the illusion and devour her.

This was broken as Raise collapsed to his knees regurgitating the remains of his lunch all over the ground. For a moment he stared up at Serafall with empty eyes and then he disappeared completely.

It would be a long time before she would see Raise again.

 **Author Note: Fun fact: Raise was originally inspired by Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls and Lucifer Morningstar from DC.**

 **Does anybody ever wonder if Issei's Dress Break is overpowered or if the tailors in DxD are just incompetent. I mean come on just look at the Naruto tailors. Struck by lightning, stabbed, energy balls, punched through a moon and it all comes out in the wash. Ever wonder if they look down on dressmakers from other franchises. I'm fairly certain that Dress Break would only snip a few threads at most of those Ninja clothes.**


	4. Chapter 4

The Gremory manor was filled with bustle and high spirits on this summer day. Maids and butlers dutifully cleaned, increasing their efforts as the head maid passed by with a young child holding her hand. The head maid was had silver hair that she kept in two pigtails and a ponytail. She stood straight in her impeccably neat maid's uniform with red eyes locked in a piercing glare that only softened as she gazed at the child next to her. The child next to her bore no similarity to her in features. He stood barely above her waist and he met her red eyes with his own curious blue ones. He lightly swung the both of their hands as he walked and the maid favoured him with an indulgent smile.

"Hey Grayfia, where are we going?" Raise said grinning upwards at the maid.

"That's the third time you've asked me Raise," the maid said huffing disapprovingly although there was a hint of a smile. "I know about as much as you. Your parents just asked me to come and fetch you. Apparently they have a very important visitor who wants to see you,"

"Is it one of my friends?" Raise asked and Grayfia shook her head. "If it was your friend then you would probably be already running around with them. No I'm sure whoever it is you have never met them before."

"I hope they're nice," Raise said optimistically as the two of them came to the room that housed his father's study.

"I can't think of a single person who would be mean to such a nice polite child as you," Grayfia replied as she knelt down fixing up the collar of Raise's clothes. "Come on let's go inside," she said standing to the side of the door and pushing it open allowing Raise direct access to the room.

Nodding his head in silent thanks to the maid Raise stepped into the room which he knew so well, having snuck in here multiple times. Multiple bookshelves lined the room filled with dusty tomes and purple light flooded in through windows that took up an entire quarter of the room. A desk of dark polished wood sat in the far side of the room away from the light although it was unoccupied at the moment. The whole room was adorned with a scarlet carpet on which three devils stood.

Raise watched as his father turned towards him but he didn't look at him. Even as his mother smiled and moved towards him he paid no attention. Like transient shadows the words that they spoke brushed through his ears like waterfall over rapids and he took none of the all too familiar words in.

Instead the entirety of his attention was occupied by the devil standing in front of him. He was dignified and stately in his appearance with a power and wisdom from a different era that would have inspired respect among all of devil kind. In front of him looking down at him with an appraising look, the true ruler of the devils Zekram Bael stood.

Raise's veins filled with liquid hate and every fibre of his being cried out to wipe this beast off the face of the Earth. His hand thrust forward summoning a power that would have reduced him to non-existence.

But his magic didn't respond as he began to feel his body start to burn. Hate rampaged uncontrolled and uncontrollable through his small frame tearing apart half his body with the ease of the sun dispelling a shadow. Desperately he tried to clamp down on the hatred but with each exertion the power grew until he began to feel his very skin start to burn under the wrath. Suddenly without warning the pain settled down into a sharp throbbing and he managed to relax for a moment.

That moment of relaxation was his end. The last sight he saw before his eyeballs evaporated was the blinding, burning light of a star descending onto earth that ate into his flesh.

xxx

Raise Gremory shot upwards from his slumber with vigorous motion and was rewarded with a brief moment of clarity before knives dug into his skin and his flesh caught fire. A single pained screech managed to escape his throat before his throat closed and he found himself able to gesture. Under the stimulus his muscles rebelled and he fell backwards. He tried to stop himself by bringing his hands to stabilise him but his hand seemed to phase through the floor and then everything went white.

xxx

Consciousness came slower to Raise Gremory the second time as his mind gradually ascended from the black void and two sensations made themselves on his body. His entire right side was on fire as constant waves of terrifyingly familiar pain that brought to mind months in a hospital from a time that he wished to forget. The second sensation was almost infinitely better by comparison, being the feel of cold wetness rubbing along his neck.

Curiosity overcame him and he opened his eyes, the simple action taking energy far disproportionate to the effect. A gasp greeted him that came from the fuzzy shape that sat in front of him. He blinked rapidly to try and get some clarity in his eyes and the image reluctantly managed to resolve itself into the form of a young black haired girl who may have been pretty if she did something with that terrible blur all over her face.

"_," she spoke some kind of words that washed over Raise unable to take in any meaning from the gibberish. In response he slowly weakly tried to lift his arm but it didn't seem to respond; only allowing that ever present pain to rise to a crescendo inside his head. He screamed once again, his voice overruling his brain and he saw the fuzzy form of the girl frantically moving around before another figure burst into the room and he felt a wave of lethargy carry him to sleep.

xxx

Raise came into consciousness for a third time and it already proved to be more promising than the other two. His stomach ached with hunger and his body was still heavy with fatigue but the ache on his right side had dulled and his vision and senses were clear. The darkened room that he had seen was empty, Spartan and in a style that was unfamiliar to his devil tastes. 'No,' he thought. 'They were not wholly unfamiliar.' He had seen a style like this once before when he and Serafall had travelled; back in happier times. Memories from the past assailed him and he was glad that his stomach was empty; otherwise he would have surely regurgitated anything he had eaten. Forcefully turning his mind away from the past he scanned the area for any signs of life and found nothing before he decided to get up and look further. Attempting to place his hands on the ground again his right hand surged in agony that caused him to bite his lip as an utter feeling of wrongness engulfed his limb. He gripped it in his left hand before his face went white and he hastily jerked it in front of his face.

His right hand was gone. Only a stump remained buried in bandages from where the appendage once stood. A wave of light-headedness hit him but he gritted his teeth and forcibly calmed down. Gingerly he rubbed his arm over the left side of his body and felt only bandages above tender flesh. A blanket lay over his body and he removed it revealing a torso that was on the verge of complete mummification. The shift of his body was enough for his body to feel like it was being flayed within the bandages and he relaxed.

"Pain is an illusion," he reminded himself, speaking out loud with a voice that was hoarse and cracked from disuse and then he crept unsteadily to his feet. White pain assaulted him stabbing into his body but he let the sensation wash through him before he snapped his fingers with his one remaining hand and clad his body in illusory flesh and garments.

A sharp sigh was enough to draw his eye and he immediately became aware that he wasn't alone in the room. A single glance was enough to pick up the illusion and he mentally berated himself. Even injured to be so terribly unaware was unlike him and he could only attribute it to his mental state. He turned in the direction of the illusion and directed his gaze towards the spot where his host hid themselves.

"Ah so you noticed," the voice hit his ears and an instant later the illusion was dispelled revealing the oldest looking person that Raise had ever seen. A beard grey and well kempt dangled past his waist and his face was covered with countless wrinkles. A pair of grey eyes that bespoke wisdom and acceptance calmly eyed Raise seeming to know everything about him, to understand him and Raise blinked first before examining the rest of the picture. He was wearing a kimono that was decorated in colours of red and pink indicating his Japanese origin, but not more so than the grey fox ears upon his head and the nine grey tails that draped on the ground behind him.

"You have been asleep for a long time," the man said recognizing Raise's scrutinizing gaze but not taking any special notice. "I would normally advise one so injured to return to their bed but you seem like the person to do the opposite. That being the case I will humbly invite you to dinner."

"That would be perfect. Thank you for healing me," Raise said in response only to see the man frown.

"I'm afraid I couldn't heal you," he admitted. "The damage done to your body was severe but could have been restored in time if it wasn't for the remnants of magic left in the wounds. I'm afraid that while they remain dormant at the slightest hint of any magic they will flare up and likely continue to harm you. In all my years I've seen fewer crueller examples of magic. I cannot tell you how long if ever they will disappear but I will turn all my efforts into finding…"

"Don't worry," Raise said cutting the old Kitsune off mid-sentence. "The effects will only last between two and three years. Afterwards it will wear off and from then onwards the pain is negligible."

"You've been through this before," the older man said narrowing his eyes at the young devil.

"It's my own magic," Raise admitted. "I know just how cruel it can be."

"I see," the grey haired Kitsune said and the room lapsed into silence although there was an air of comfort present here that was missing in many other conversations that dwelled upon these topics. "You have become strong through your suffering."

"No," Raise rejected immediately. "I'm not strong." Once again the conversation lapsed into silence and Raise suddenly felt the urge to bring up **that** but he crushed it down. He hadn't had time to think about it himself let alone mention it to a total stranger no matter how much he had helped him.

Suddenly another person burst into the room surprising the red haired devil, although the man beside him just chuckled. His first impression upon her was that she was very short and if it wasn't for a certain maturity upon her face he would have mistaken her for a child. Raise was not the tallest person himself but the girl was at least a head shorter than him. She was wearing a blue and white Kimono and had nine black fox tails behind her. Dark blue eyes twinkled with excitement as she flashed a radiant smile at the sight of the devil.

"Grandpa, he's awake," she said wagging her tail with excitement

"I know," her apparent grandfather said and there was a note of exasperation beneath his fondness. "He's also right in front of you and it's incredibly rude to talk about him as if he's not there."

"I'm sorry," the young girl said bowing deeply. "Hello my name is Kaika Saito." She tilted her head. "Who are you?"

"Raise," Raise replied. "Sorry no last name for the moment."

"That's perfectly fine," the older man replied. "My name is Kareta Saito. Have you finished with the soup," he said as he turned to Kaika.

"Oh s_ darn," she said looking embarrassed and Raise got the feeling that whatever was translated was probably going to be a lot less clean. "I have to go. Bye grandfather. Bye Raise," she said darting away from the room.

"Quite an energetic young granddaughter you have," Raise said making conversation.

"Yes, she's grown up just like her mother," Kareta replied smiling in fond reminiscence. "Just a friendly warning," he said his face suddenly becoming intense. "She's much too young for dating. I won't tolerate it."

"I've just got out of a toxic relationship," Raise said, putting forward an explanation that was almost true if you squinted. "I have no interest in starting a new relationship."

"That's good," the man said chuckling to himself. "Have you thought about what you're going to do? If you have a way of contacting other devils then I can take you somewhere to get picked up." The old man said, subtly suggesting that while he would like to help Raise there was no way he would give devils the location of his home.

"I'm afraid I'm quite unwilling to encounter with any of my kin at this present moment," Raise said, each of his words injected with a tone that tried his best to convey just how poor of an idea he thought that was. "How did I get here anyway?"

"I found you at the bottom of my garden, blood pouring out of you," Kareta explained in that patient tone of his. "How you ended up there I don't know but I am not the kind of person to turn away a wounded person, devil or not."

"Thank you for that," Raise said as he silently contemplated his future. Suddenly the thought hit him like a thunderbolt washing away all other feelings and even dulling the constant pain. "I'm free," he said out loud.

"I'm free," he repeated the words stirring something very deep inside him. Unconsciously a smile crept over his face and he could feel a weight that he didn't even know existed until now lift from his shoulders. Suddenly the wide, scary, exciting, new, dangerous, amazing, interesting, terrible, beautiful world lay right outside the door.

His smile dimmed as he remembered the cost, a terrible one that he had only personally paid a portion of. He personally had no idea if Delilah was killed in his final attack but the arena had definitely registered her complete defeat. He wondered if… regardless she wouldn't escape the fight unscathed. Light magic is poison to devils and any recovery would be slow and painful, that was if she got the chance to recover…"

"Remember with freedom comes responsibility," the old youkai said as he sat down on the floor patting the spot next to him as a signal for Raise to join him. "If you make the wrong mistakes then you will come to regret them in your later years."

"How do you know you've made the wrong mistakes," Raise said, fearing that he might have made them already. "Don't worry," he said cutting off any reply. While Raise liked to talk and the Kitsune was a good listener, he had no idea to divulge his concerns about something so personally with somebody he had met today.

"The soup is ready," Kaika said bursting through the door interrupting the moment. She looked at the two of them before she ran out of the room and came back with two bowls of what looked to be dumplings of some sort in soup. She handed one to her grandfather and one to Raise, before she left, presumably to get her own. Raise took the opportunity to sit down next to the ancient Kitsune and tuck into his own soup.

The soup was delicious and quite different from most of his usual fare. Raise ate in silence alongside both the elderly and the young Kitsune and quickly polished off his plate. He didn't know how long it had been since he had last eaten but he suspected that it had been more than a couple of days.

"Go get our guest some more," Kareta said and Kaika didn't hesitate to obey, grabbing Raise's plate and rushing from the room, bringing back a full portion a few seconds later. She sat opposite him and wolfed down her food before sitting down and staring at Raise.

"That's rude Kaika," Kareta said as one of his tails whipped out and tapped her on the nose. "Let our guest eat in peace."

"But Grandpa, you said I could ask him my questions when I woke up," Kaika said childishly.

"I didn't mean immediately," the older man rebutted.

"It's okay," Raise said putting down his plate. He owed them for taking care of him and he was not really averse to answering questions as long as they were not too personal.

"What's it like being a devil," she asked her tails wagging in anticipation.

"Constraining," he said. "Although to be fair I've only ever been one devil and many other devils seem to be better at being one then me."

"What kinds of powers do you get," she continued immediately.

"You get whatever your ancestors got, although I personally prefer to use illusion magic."

"Grandpa will like you then," the girl said with twinkling eyes. "He's always going on about how young people don't appreciate the subtlety of illusions."

"I do," the older man said before he draped one of his tails over the younger fox girl's shoulders. "However I think you might have gotten a bit too cocky recently and I may have to test to see how well you've been progressing our little hand to tail combat."

The smaller fox gulped and Raise couldn't help but smile a bit before a twinge in his side reminded him of his current situation. The first time that his magic backfired it had been years before the residual energy dissipated and he was able to heal but he wasn't the same person back then, as evidenced by the fact that he was still able to walk around. Plus there was another difference between the old him and the current him. Raise closed his eyes blocking out the pain and sharpening his concentration to a maximum before shattering his own concentration and allowing his mind and magic to blend and assimilate with the forces of nature outside of the confines of his body. It was a practiced manoeuvre that he had refined and employed hundreds of times when training his Senjutsu, which is why what happened next came as such a shock.

Hatred and rage flooded through his body setting his mind, body and soul alight. His entire side flared up and he could feel the embers of the Power of Destruction flare back into life and dig into his flesh. Pain assailed his mind fuelling the rage and a sudden irrational desire to reduce everything around him to dust swelled within his brain.

He forcibly broke his connection to the world and clamped down on his rage entering into a calm state of mind, creating a mental world far removed from the all-consuming rage. Opening his eyes he was just quick enough to catch a flash of tails withdrawing and he understood that despite the old man's unchanged demeanour he was very aware of what just happened. Even through the pain he could feel the energy contained within just one of those tails and while he felt nothing but goodwill from the older man there wasn't any doubt in his mind that he was a pushover.

"Sorry," he said inclining his head slightly. "I guess I'm worse than I thought."

"That's okay," Kareta said and there was no hint of anger or wariness. "Just try to do that outside if you have to." To which Raise nodded in agreement before turning towards the younger fox.

"I'm sorry what other questions did you have?" he asked politely.

"Did you fight in the Heaven-Hell war?" she asked excitedly.

"Way before my time," Raise immediately countered. The Heaven-Hell war was what the other factions called the Great War. Or to be precise only members of the Three Factions called the Heaven-Hell war the Great War. No doubt other species had their own Great Wars which stained their history.

"You were quite lucky to have missed it," Kareta spoke up. "It was truly a terrifying event. Once in a lifetime even for somebody like me."

"Did you participate?" Raise asked immediately picking up the man's use of words.

"I volunteered as did a few other Youkai I know, even though the faction as a whole never moved," he said his voice telling nothing of any emotions he felt over his past.

"Ahh," Raise said not continuing the awkward topic. The man had likely not entered on the side of the devils and judging from what little he had seen of his skills there must have consequently been a lot of devil blood on his hands. Not something that you would advertise when your guest was himself a devil.

Not that he really cared. His own brother had killed hundreds of devils in the Civil War. While he despised killing he wasn't a devil to push his own unique view of the world on others. His right side burned as he recalled that he had even less right now after he had killed his future fiancé.

He gulped down the rest of his soup in his silence and Kaika seemed to sense his discomfort. He suddenly realised how tired he felt, both in body and mind. He sat there in silence as the smaller Nine-Tails brought back some cups of some unidentifiable liquid.

"It's tea," he said looking with some amusement at the young devil.

Raise accepted the cup and took in the smell. 'That was definitely not tea,' he thought silently wondering if the part of his brain that allowed him to understand languages had also taken a bit of a beating. The concoction was incredibly bitter and not really… well not really his cup of tea.

"So what are your plans going forward," the older man said to the now quite sleepy devil. "Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off so your folks can come pick you up?"

"I'm not going back yet," Raise said silently adding 'if ever' in his mind.

"Nobody," Raise said looking at the expectant face of the older man he decided to elaborate. "My brother gave me a book on surviving the wilderness for my last birthday. I'm fairly sure he saw this coming for a while then," he said smiling at the thought of his brother who always looked out for him without fail. "My parents," he said thinking about them for a moment. "Fu_ forget them," he said looking at Kaika who was at least a few years younger than him. Those bridges that he had built between them over fifteen years had turned to ash in under one. "There is one," he admitted thinking of his best friend.

"Your lover?" the older fox asked in a teasing voice and Raise felt a small flare of irrational anger that stung his side before he forced it down.

"What did I say about getting out of a toxic relationship," he said. "No she's not my lover," he said. "But besides my brother she was the one person who spoke to me without any ulterior motives. She was the one person who tried to understand me when I didn't even understand myself. Something like that is a lot weightier than lover or wife. She is probably the one reason why I stayed so long. For all the good it did," he said thinking bitterly of his fight with his fiancé.

"I'm tired," he said looking at the older Kitsune. While it may be a bit rude to cut off the conversation so abruptly he just really wanted to be alone right now.

"We can speak more in the morning if you want," the older fox said. "Come on Kaika," he said practically dragging the younger fox out of the room.

"I'm going," Kaika said waving goodbye reluctantly to the younger devil.

Raise waved back in response before his smile faded and he crawled under the covers. Despite his exhaustion it was a long time before he managed to get to sleep.

xxx

Raise awoke in the morning feeling a bit better than yesterday. His entire right side still burned but his mind had quickly adapted to the pain adjusting until it faded into the background music of his life. He glanced at his perfectly undamaged hand before sighing and letting the illusion drop. Like his wing and his leg, his hand would serve as a reminder, although of what he wasn't quite sure yet.

Seeing nobody around him he stood up from his place of rest scanning the empty room and finding that there was nobody hiding under an illusion. With an unsteady step that he had perfected due to his long crippling he limped through the door, finding that the other rooms of the house were similarly utilitarian. Sounds outside the room drew his curiosity and he walked towards the front door, judging by the light flooding through the windows, and slid it open.

The first thing that Raise thought was that the garden that he was in was beautiful with graceful flowering trees providing the ground and sky with a colourful covering and ringed by a babbling creek that gently flowed. Small flat stones littered the ground, seemingly at random and there was a fragrant odour in the air distinct from any he had smelled before. The second thing he noticed was the massive fight going on in front of him.

What was going on was nothing short of a non-violent intergenerational beat down. The young and the old Kitsune looked to be engaging in sparring of some sort. It was an incredibly lopsided result with Kaita darting forwards using a combination of all of her limbs and her tails with blistering speed and coordination while at the same time as Kareta used only one of his nine tails, efficiently repelling all of her attacks with the bare minimum of effort.

"Oh you're here," he said turning towards Raise without even looking at his granddaughter who took the opportunity to use his moment of apparent distraction for a sneak attack. It was futile however as his sole tail in use extended and whipped around like a snake blocking all of her limbs

"Senjutsu," Raise said making an observation. While he couldn't use it currently, there was no way he wouldn't recognize it.

"Exactly, good eye," the older fox said and in the next second his tail lashed backwards grappling the smaller Kitsune and the next second Kaika had fallen asleep. His tail extended and gently placed the young girl in one of the boughs of the trees nearby. "So you're having trouble with Senjutsu," he said. "Would you like to try it under my supervision?"

"That would be great. Thank you," Raise said gratefully as he moved away from the house and the tree on which the little Kitusne lay.

"Well give it a go," the older man said egging him on.

"Give me a moment," he said reaching deep inside into his magic, the source of his power and combining it with the world around him. The world responded with anger that seared his already burnt flesh but this time Raise was ready. He let go of all of his anger destroying each and every instance of wrath that he could feel until nothing remained. When a calm mind had been entered he synchronised his senses with that of the world and frowned. The link was far weaker and he found that he could only blame himself. The world hadn't changed. Thick spreads of natural ki combined with smaller sources of demonic energy, most likely from him, foreign ki, most likely from the two foxes, and even weirder elements such as solar energy and traces of energy he couldn't even begin to define. Underneath all of this power lay the Source, an energy so potent there was no way he could touch it even with a hundred years of training.

"I can barely do it," he said looking at the tenuous string between his own energy and the world around him. His own bodily energy fluctuated wildly and the embers of the power of destruction in his arm flared up, but he forced the rampaging magic down by sheer willpower.

"Can you actually do anything with it or are you just going to stand around looking clueless," the older fox said taking a seat on a nearby stone.

"Let's see," Raise said with far more confidence than he actually felt. He looked his arm but he had no confidence in healing the scoured flesh. He didn't feel like growing the plants around him. In fact there was only one specific thing that he felt like at the moment. Stretching his destroyed arm upwards he summoned illusions of ice before filling it with energy that he was well accustomed to. The air became colder and he watched in satisfaction as the face of Kareta started to show amazement.

Then everything went wrong as the icy feel of the energy broke open to reveal raw, hateful, destructive power. A red tinged black wave of oppressive magic burst out from the shards falling directly towards him and suddenly he found himself a few dozen feet backwards and with tails wrapped around him.

"I'm assuming that wasn't what you wanted to happen," the aged voice of Kareka made itself known to his ears. The old fox was examining one of his tails that were being eaten by the dark energy before without a pause he severed his tail and tossed it into the writhing mass of black that was consuming the land.

He waved his hand and a streak of shining white fire appeared from the sky and Raise watched in pure amazement as the unstable Power of Destruction was purified by the relentless barrage of flame. When the blackness was gone leaving nothing but a crater where it hit Raise felt another surge of natural ki and watched in amazement as the tail of the old Kitsune regrew before his eyes.

"That really is some nasty stuff," he said waving his newly healed tail. "If you don't get a handle on your power then it will eventually destroy you," he continued inspecting the younger devil. "Do you understand? You will be devoured by your own magic."

"Thank you for saving me and the advice," Raise said gratefully.

"What are your future plans?" Kareta asked as he resumed his seat on the stone.

"I'm not sure," Raise said. "Travel, explore the world and fix my Senjustu," he said after a few moments.

"In your state you will die in a few weeks," Kareta said tearing down his plans. "Japan is especially dangerous at this time. The humans have gone an anti-youkai streak quite recently and the majority of the supernatural creatures have gone underground. All those too brave or too stupid to hide have likely perished."

"Is that so?" Raise said, not doubting his words in the slightest. A moment passed in which both Kareta and he seemed to share a secret before the moment passed. "Humans can be scary creatures."

"Stay here," Kareta said as he stared up at the blue sky. "Take some time to relax, fix your magic and maybe heal up your arm."

"Maybe I should," Raise said deliberating over the prospect. The place was peaceful the food looked good and…

"Let me rephrase that," Kareta said cutting him off and his voice seemed to take on sinister undertones. "You don't have a choice." He suddenly chuckled but the atmosphere didn't dispel at all. "You really didn't like that. I can see it in your posture and in the way you breathe. As soon as I took away your chance at freedom you immediately started seeing me as an enemy regardless of the fact that I saved your life and healed your wounds."

"If you know how I would react than why would you do that?" Raise said as he purposefully forced down the sense of shame that arose him. He had instinctively readied his magic and focused his mind, illusions forming beneath the lids of his eyes ready to spring into existence.

"Why did I do it?" Kareta asked as if he was musing over the question. "If you leave the confines of my home then you will die. Right now your magic is uncontrolled and your mind is unfocused. Even your tenuous grip on Senjutsu will easily sever under the harsh world in your current state."

"Besides," Kareta said leaning in front of Raise. "Can you accept gaining total autonomy just like that? If it was so easy to live unrestrained and unaffected by the world then don't you think everybody would do it? Think of me as the penultimate gatekeeper to the ideal you hold so dear."

The old fox turned away heading towards the house and Raise contemplated just leaving for a single moment before he turned back and met his eyes, his smile seeming to see through Raise's inner thoughts.

"Oh by the way," he said offhandedly and those casual words caused the world to tremble as the natural ki that saturated the Earth shuddered and began to slowly move. Raise gasped as nature bent to the old fox's will and the surrounding energy that lay eternally dormant converged upon him, rising higher and higher to a crescendo of calmness that indicated the possibility of a violent unstoppable natural disaster. "Your illusions are astonishing, but it is still beyond the realm of possibility for a mere Senjustu user, to hide from a Senjutsu master."

Those words resounded inside Raise's head as once again nature became still and the old Kitsune headed indoors leaving the devil standing outside alone, except for the snoozing girl in the tree. He sighed casually putting his one remaining hand inside his pocket and froze as he felt cool metal. Pulling the mysterious object out of its resting place he lay his eyes upon the cracked and broken form of the golden pocket watch that Serafall had given him so long ago. He must have forgotten it and taken it into the fight with him because the metal was bent and the glass was cracked. Not a single tick could be heard from the very dead contraption. Smiling in nostalgia Raise watched as the pocket watch seemed to repair before his very eyes and Raise swore that while it only appeared to be fine for the moment, the illusion would in the future become real.

xxx

 **3 Year Later**

"Nine of the clock," Raise said snapping his golden pocket watch shut. The device had been repaired as a graduation present from his master when he had completed his training a few weeks ago. Poor Kaika had cried when he departed and the old man had to pull her off him when she wouldn't let go. Still he would not be dissuaded from his course no matter how many good memories they shared together.

He wore a white hooded cloak, which covered his distinctly non-Japanese features, over a more traditional hakama. He probably cut quite a mysterious figure standing on one of the highest branches of a tree scanning the structures that completely filled the spacious clearing in front of him. This place, surrounded by a massive forest, was nearly impossible to find even with the precise location that he hadn't originally been given. It was only by sensing the life energy of the youkai from far away that he was able to find his way there. Grassy plains surrounded large walls that appeared to be more suited for western castles even if their overall style was Japanese. Apparently the Youkai that inhabited this fortress were more insular than most and quite xenophobic if what the old man said was to be believed.

Still they had information on an object that he needed, so they will just have to suffer through his company for a bit. After a bit of thought he decided to forego stealth in this endeavour. While he could probably sneak his way into the fortress and interrogate one of the crows that were lived there it was quite unlikely that he would find one who knew anything in the first place and he didn't want to make an enemy unnecessarily.

Dropping down from the tree he casually strode towards the fortress with his hands at his side and no sign of aggression. Barely had he moved a few metres from the treeline when his senses picked up the movement of ki and purposefully didn't react as a warning arrow flew past his head. From above the wall of the fortress a dozen Karasu-Tengu flew forwards surrounding him in a circle and looking down on him. They were all in their complete youkai form which meant full crow heads and wings as well as claws.

"Devil you are trespassing on territory of the Youkai faction," one of the crows apparently speaking for the rest told him. "Turn around now and leave for your own territory or die."

"I came here looking for a mirror," Raise said ignoring their warning. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as arrows rained down amongst him and he sighed. He didn't even have to look at the projectiles as their owner's ki signatures made their trajectories abundantly clear. With only a slight bit of movement he was able to dodge the hail of deadly barbs. Over the last three years under the guidance of the old man he had transitioned from a user of Senjutsu to a master.

"Are you done?" he asked looking down at the blades of grass with little hope of that being the case. His instinct was correct as he felt a sudden burst of Youjutsu, basically Youkai magic, in the form of wind that was bearing down on his position. Somehow those twelve guards had combined their magic into the form of a spell that was greater than the sum of its parts. He could already feel his skin start to burn, the tell-tale sign of anti-devil magic and he sighed in annoyance at how far they were escalating the fight even when he had no desire whatsoever to kill them. Unfortunately for them, while he in no way didn't like fighting he was in no way poor at it.

xxx

 **2 years 8 months earlier**

Raise hit the dirt rolling, and bobbing to his feet. A relentless assault disguised as a small Kitsune launched herself forward punching and kicking without pause. Every single one of her movements was read easily but Raise was unfortunately inferior to his junior in both speed and strength. Of course none of this would matter if he could use his Senjutsu, but unfortunately both he and Kareta agreed that it was off the table for the moment until he could perfectly control it. He saw the kick before it hit him and so despite his inability to avoid it he rolled with it flying backwards and landing on the grassy ground.

"Ha I win again," Kaita said with all the grace of somebody a few years younger than her actual age.

"Well done, you beat up a cripple," Raise said dryly. While normally he would never refer to himself as such, he was nowhere near to recovering all of his functionality. Even he could admit that he had fallen very far.

"Would you like me to tie one arm behind my back again," Kaita said smugly. "Maybe you will be able to last five minutes then."

"Maybe you can do that after you finish your chores," Kareta said signalling an end to the trash talk. "Raise come talk to me," he said walking over to the stone and sitting down. Kaita waved as she headed inside the house, understanding her granfathers direction.

"How do you like your stay so far," Kareta said.

"Mixed feelings," Raise shrugged as he sat down on the grass opposite him. "I'm filled with background annoyance that I'm still a captive and more acute annoyance that I'm not learning anything."

"You will," Kareta said. "Do you know I always feel that exercise is good for centring yourself. I find it helps get harmful emotions out of the system." The old fox didn't need to elaborate at that. Anger and despair had been Raise's constant companions when he first started living here, but they had faded with the passing of time and if fighting the tiny fox helped than it was worth it.

"Thank you," he said with sincerity and despite the fact that his desire to leave had not faded; he felt only fondness when he thought of the pair of foxes.

"Thank me in a few minutes," Kareta said. "After I tell you the other reason that I had you carry out the exercises. You see when you use your Senjustu you use your devil magic to link to the surrounding natural ki." Raise nodded in understanding. "There's nothing wrong with that," Kareta said emphasising the point. "The downside however is that unlike other Senjutsu users since you haven't been using your own ki, your own life force, there is one thing you haven't learned. Today I will teach you this as I have judged that you've sufficiently built up your life force and stabilised it over these past four months."

"Feel your ki now," the old Kitsune said staring at Raise with piercing intensity. "You already have everything you require. Now all you need is to use it."

"I can feel it," Raise said almost immediately. No searching was required. His life force was weaker, stable and steady while his magic was powerful, erratic and wild. These two forces mixed like oil and water in his body and were absurdly easy to seperate.

"Good," Kareta said smiling proudly at his student. "Now I'll teach you to draw it out. I'll teach you to use your own life energy as a shield and a sword granting you great power. The name of this technique is…"

xxx

 **Present**

"Touki," Raise said idly to himself as blood red energy formed around him blocking off the force of the devil killing tornado that slammed into him. The energy from the magic was intense, a true testament to the power of cooperation but it failed to pierce Raise's armour and Raise aimed his eyes skyward looking at the disbelieving forms of the crows.

"I tried," Raise said and then he vanished from sight appearing just in front of one of the crows he launched a kick at him launching him backwards. Smiling he faded from sight as the arrows passed through him before he leapt through the air and into the form of one of them a single punch from his only hand driving them to the ground. This scene repeated itself with a few variations over the next minute and when the majority of the guards were down the entire scene faded to reveal the wounded bodies of the crows on the ground, riddled with arrows and tended to by Raise who healed them enough so that they would remain out of reach of the reapers grasp before using his Senjutsu to force them to fall asleep using one of the tricks he had learnt from the old man.

There were probably more of his like in the fortress and even stronger ones held in reserve. Diplomacy had effectively failed and the wounded guards would probably not help the situation. He watched as crows arose from the walls blotting out the sky with their black wings and the area in which his illusion stood was bathed in arrow fire. Some of the arrows in fact landed among their comrades piercing their prone bodies and finishing the job.

These crows were so determined to kill their intruder that they wrote off the lives of their wounded, obliterating any future goals that they might have. Anger coursed through his veins but it was good, righteous anger this time. He hated killing with a passion. He had always felt that death is the one cage that nobody can escape and that killing somebody irreversibly cuts short all of their future choices and resetting their potential to zero. That attitude had lessened after many talks with Kareta and his teacher's assurance that there were times that he would have to infringe upon others freedoms to protect his own and others but it never quite disappeared and he still vehemently disagreed with the old Kitsune about some things.

"This is your last chance, just surrender and let me through and no harm will come to you today," he said although there was virtually no chance for that to happen.

The response was nothing but mocking laughter and a bombardment of arrows that had no chance of hitting him, or even penetrating his Touki if they did. He decided to forego the usage of his illusions for the moment. While the crows had no defence against them there was no use in practicing something that he had long ago mastered. His armour of Touki extended outwards forming a pair of large red dragon wings and he took off into the sky heading into the salvo of missiles. His fake Touki formed wings whipped towards the arrows deflecting any of them that he chose not to dodge as he moved at a speed faster than these cretins could perceive.

He had been incredibly satisfied when he learnt how to produce wings of Touki nearly two years ago. While he had learnt the ability to stand on air he had never quite been able to fly since his first incident until the day he had first took to the skies on blood red wings. He smiled at the freedom it offered him as he spun around lashing out with his wings and taking over a dozen of the crows down hard, with a lot less care for their continued survival than he had started with. Bows were discarded and staves carved with arcane runes were brought to the fore but apparently crow Youkai had hollow bones as well because they were unable to penetrate his Touki or even receive one of his blows. The ones that didn't fall to his wings or fist; fell to illusions, or the effects of having their life force torn away by Senjutsu.

Like shadowy rain the broken bodies of the murder of crows fell to the ground and Raise grimaced as he felt more than one source of ki fade suddenly. Using his wings he dropped down into the empty courtyard on the other side of the castle. There were still a few crows that were apparently scattered remnants that hadn't left the fortress but they ran from him; either to cowardly or too clever to face him after what he did to their comrades.

While there were many buildings that were spread around the confines of the walls, it was fairly obvious where the leaders of this fortress were hunkered down. A castle constructed of stone and wood sat in middle of the stronghold with all other buildings subtly angled towards it as if paying reverence. That would be his first stop. The entrance was guarded by two more of the crows although these ones were decorated in much more elaborate armour. As he approached the two stepped forward as if to block his way.

"State your purpose here," the one on the left said.

"I've come looking for a specific mirror," Raise said. There was really no reason to elaborate. There was only one mirror that he could be talking of.

"The Elder One has not arranged for your arrival," the guard said. "Return with an appointment and you will be allowed through."

"Have you been inflicted with madness?" Raise asked quite confused. "Did you not see my scuffle with those other Karasu-Tengu?"

"What you do with those trash is not our concern," one of the crows spoke up causing Raise to instinctively dislike him. Our job is to guard the gate for the Elder One." Okay he would definitely have no compunctions if they got a bit roughed up. Just as he was about to do the deed he felt a sliver of magic and the two guards jolted to attention.

"The Elder One has commanded that you come through," the guards said standing aside and opening the gate.

"Commanded, huh," Raise muttered to himself, once again filled with the paradoxical desire to just leave. "All right let's see what's going on here," he said as he stepped through the door and into a surprisingly opulent hall.

"I am Kezumi Aoba, please follow me," a crow dressed in a butler outfit curtly introduced himself before turning away and walking in the opposite direction. Raise shrugged and followed the butler crow as he directed him through the large rooms of the castle, filled with numerous rare and valuable looking Japanese artefacts and protected by more of those decoratively armoured guards. Unfortunately none of the artefacts that he saw was the one that he was looking for otherwise it is likely that Raise would have simply stolen it and ran.

The butler stopped at a large latched set of double doors, before knocking three times, causing an echoing boom to resonate throughout the room. After a pause of a couple seconds the latch clicked open with that same pulse of magic.

"The master will see you now," the butler said turning and leaving without a look back.

"Apparently devils aren't very welcomed here," Raise mused to himself at the chilly reception he had received so far. "Or maybe they just don't like my face." Walking forward he pushed against the door with his one good hand and stepped into the room.

A stone throne sat at the far end of the room housed an aged red faced man clad in a surprisingly drab hakama. A simple glance at the expression on his face was enough to reveal that he did not like the younger devil at all. In fact he had the expression of a man that was eager to tear him to shreds. Suddenly laughter broke out and Raise's eye was drawn to the second man in the room whereupon they widened in disbelief before he schooled his expression.

"Yes, I think you'll find that the majority of Youkai are not grateful for the 'gifts' your species have given to us Youkai over the centuries," the third Nine-Tailed fox he had ever seen said chuckling with a hollow sort of delight. He had blonde hair and amber eyes and a sharp smile that brimmed with glee. He was also wearing a hakama, but where his companion's was drab, his was bright gold and filled with images of the sun. He seemed to be a few years older than Raise but honestly the young devil was not so clued up on how Youkai aged considering it had taken him by complete surprise when he found out Kaita was thirteen.

"I am not my species," Raise responded.

"Really," the Kitsune said in a deliberately exaggerated tone. "Because from where I'm standing you sure are behaving a lot like most other devils that I've met; breaking into our territory, killing our men," he said with a smile that bared his fangs. "It sounds pretty devil-like to me."

"You killed more of your own men than I did," Raise said with stoic features.

"Are you sure," the Kitsune said tilting his head as if deep in thought. "From where I'm standing it looks like if you hadn't come today they would still be alive. What is a devil even doing here?"

"I'm here to take a look into a mirror," Raise said and he watched as the crow that had stayed so silent until now immediately shot out of his seat.

"Lord Katonori, the devil seeks to steal the Yata Mirror," he yelled pointing at Raise. "We must stop him."

"Of course what other mirrors do you have here," the supposed Lord Katonori said and there was a distinct note of puzzlement in his voice. His eyes narrowed as he inspected the Karasu-Tengu besides him. "Your reaction is a bit odd though. We'll talk later," he finished cutting them off and the crow's scarlet face turned pale.

"I will say that I've never seen a devil use Senjutsu before," he said turning back to Raise. "Just who was the teacher that was able to accomplish the impossible?"

"We both know that's not something I'm going to reveal," Raise said.

"Understandable," the Kitsune said nodding his head as if it were eminently reasonable. "I'll just have to torture it out of you," he elaborated his mask of false affability dropping completely. "I am Yasu Katonori the heir to the Youkai faction and one of the only two Nine-Tailed foxes in existence and you filthy devil have trespassed on our land, demanded our riches and stolen our secrets. Repent with your life."

'He isn't aware of Kareta and Kaika,' Raise thought. 'That doesn't matter. It's not my business why they are hiding. Still I wonder how he stacks up to the pair.'

A massive surge of ki was the only warning he got and he raised his Touki to the absolute maximum before a hit on the chest sent him plummeting through the stone walls and through a few rooms before he came to a stop disorientated but unhurt in what looked to be some sort of barracks. Apologizing to two astonished crows that were playing Shogi he focused on the source of ki again and sidestepped a second before the Nine-Tailed missile sent him through another few walls. He moved again and watched the clawed fingers of his foe tear through one of his illusions before he fired off a punch at his aggressor coating his body in Touki and causing the fox to stumble backwards.

Raise followed up by clapping his hands and generating a massive burst of light that caused the Nine-Tails opposing him to let out a painful cry. Snapping his fingers he summoned mist and moved towards the fox launching a kick that let him stumble backwards. The kick was followed up by a punch that was caught and Raise barely escaped being grilled by the retaliatory strike in the form of white flames that tore through the walls of the building melting the stone and disintegrating the wood.

What he couldn't dodge, was the mass of tails that hit him like an avalanche and sent him through another of the castle walls and ploughing into the grass and dirt that signalled that he had left the castle confines. He stared up at the blue sky for a brief moment before the crunching of stone and wood reminded him that he was currently in a pretty dicey situation. Standing up on aching legs he watched as the massive form of a fox, as big as some of the smaller buildings, burst through one of the rooms in the castle causing masonry to go flying everywhere.

The fox caught sight of him with its reddened inflamed eyes and Raise saw hate in those amber orbs before it opened up its mouth and spat forth a sea of flames at him or at least where the illusion of Raise was standing. Flanking from his blind spot Raise was able to land a punishing blow on his side but when he attempted to use Senjustu to attack the ki of his opponent he felt resistance in the few seconds before a retaliatory paw shot towards him sending him flying backwards towards the other end of the encampment where he landed on his feet.

"Haha," the fox laughed, its voice surprisingly normal sounding coming from such a huge fox. "Do you think your shit grasp of Senjutsu would be able to compare to that of a Youkai; to that of a Nine-Tailed fox. How laughable is that, how pitiful you are. Let me end your pitiful existence." His last words were accompanied by a white hot yet of flames and Raise took to the sky to avoid it.

More and more flames spewed from the Youkai's mouth missing the nimble form of the devil and landing in the nearby forest causing the woods to burn. It was incredible for Raise just how little these Youkai seemed to care about the collateral damage but if they were not going to care for their own subordinates than Raise was not going to waste the energy doing so either.

He tucked his wings and rolled out of the way of another one of those jets of flame, closer this time than before. It seemed that the fox was improving his aim as the fight wore on, but it also meant that more of the forest burnt down due to the wildfires rampaging around the wooded area.

"Just give up and burn," the giant fox said with a simply abnormal amount of bloodlust.

"I guess the peaceful way really was just a pipe dream," Raise said to himself as the flames closed in further. "Oh well, if I've done all I can and tried my best. Forgive me but you may feel a slight chill."

xxx

 **2 years earlier**

"So that's the power of destruction," Kareta said as he watched another attempt at replicating the light spears of angels turn into blackish energy and begin to devour the surroundings. Without missing a beat he summoned flames and burnt the energy out of existence. "It's quite tenacious stuff; you really are giving your teacher a hard time."

"It took you quite some time to recognise it," old man Raise said shaking his hands as he looked at the remains of his failed attempt.

"It's a bit different from any other time I've seen that particular devil power used before," he said. "And I haven't seen it used too much in the first place. Besides this looks more like a mutation than your standard POD."

"Really," Raise said frowning at another failure.

"You don't really care," he observed. "You absolutely refuse to use your natural magic, the magic that was with you when you were born." He cocked his head. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Raise denied turning away and trying to form the light spear again. "No I'm lying to myself, I do. Every time I try to think my way around it all I do is keep getting stuck."

"I hate my magic," he said. "A long time ago I ended up very, very hurt by own magic." He paused and Kareta filled the void.

"And that's why you hate your magic," he stated although Raise was already shaking his head.

"No, yes, maybe…" he started. "When in the hospital I realised that in the end to my parents and to devil society I was nothing more than my Power of Destruction. My mutation as it were would only help me fit better into that nice little box labelled Raise Gremory. That's not even the worst bit." Raise said as he lay down on the grass staring upwards at the sky. "You have to realise that the Power of Destruction is really, really potent. If I were to use it then I know that I would soon rely on it exclusively. Every fight and battle would be a matter of releasing the power of destruction and obliterating my foes. Every confrontation would end with death and I know that I would be celebrated for it."

"Gremory, so you must be Sirzechs brother," the old fox said, watching as Raise started. "Oh don't worry, I've taught you for two years there's no way that I'm going to take advantage of that."

"Thank you," Raise said gratefully. "I don't want to end up like that."

"I see," Kareta said and there was a sudden look of clarity on his face. "All this supposed anger you've displayed against the other devils, your family even your future fiancé. You were never angry."

"I can assure you that I was," Raise said. "I've battled with my anger constantly over the years. No matter how much I've tried to let it go. No matter how much I ignore, or bury, or accept or destroy my anger; it keeps coming back. No matter what I do, so if you have a solution please tell me." By the end of his rant his voice had started to rise until he was practically shouting at the older fox.

"You were scared," Kareta said stopping the younger devil dead.

"Scared?" Raise said immediately scoffing. "That's ridiculous. Why would I be scared of something as pathetic as devil society?"

"Because you know that it's a possibility, no in fact it's very probable that, you would end up enjoying it," Kareta said. "You may rage at them and hate them, but beneath it all the real reason is simply because you're scared that one slip up, one moment of happiness, one mistake and you will simply become them, another cog in devil society and that scares you. You hide your fears in mock anger because you're afraid to acknowledge the paper thin line between you and them."

"I'm nothing like them," Raise rebutted clenching his fist. "They're the ones that have given up. They're the ones who are content to slave themselves for the good of their house or the Kings of their Peerage. I will never be like them." Raise stopped and for the first time he managed to look down at his hands that were shaking, but this time he understood that it was not in anger. For the first time in his life his illusions crumbled and he collapsed to his knees, drained of all his willpower.

Kareta was there in a moment, holding his shoulders. "What do I do?" Raise said. "What do I do? He repeated. "Please tell me what to do?"

"No," Kareta said with the finality of a door slamming shut. He stared into Raise's eyes as he spoke trying to capture the devil's full attention. "You've spent all your life trying to live by your own rules. You've learned Senjustu, which I would've thought impossible for a devil. Your mastery of illusions is equal to that of a Kitsune and you have figured out a way that you can use light energy as a creature that is antithetical to it." He dragged Raise to his feet. "You did all this by following your own path. Do you really think you need me to tell you what to do? You're feeling scared are you? Good, scared means you're winning. A man that has nothing to lose can feel no fear. Only those that have reached heights can look down and fear failure."

He let go of Raise for a moment and Raise stumbled briefly before standing on his feet. "Use you fear to propel you, but do not be the sort of person who would allow it to rule over you."

"Thank you," Raise said after a moment of collecting his thoughts.

"It was simply a moment of weakness," the old man rebutted. "We all have them do not give it a second thought." He smiled gently to the younger devil. "Now why don't you give it another go?"

It took a moment for Raise to remember what they were doing but when he did he immediately focused on his task. A light spear formed in the air in front of him and for a moment he dreaded that it would burst open and rain Destruction on him, but then what was so scary about that. The Power of Destruction was part of him, but he chose not to use that part and despite its might it held no power over him.

After a few seconds a completed light spear dropped down into Raise's hand and he smiled.

xxx

 **Present**

Stormy black clouds billowed out from Raise's location covering the sky and turning the bright day dark. From the black clouds icicles dropped hitting the ground and causing frost to spread from the point of impact. Icy winds started blowing freezing large portions of the forest and even icing over the raging fires. Raise tucked his wings and dropped down to the ground, summoning walls of ice to block the rampant firing of the Kitsune's fire. As soon as he hit the ground the grass and dirt froze over forming instant glaciers.

"What the Hell," the fox remarked before breathing out more and more jets of flame trying to burn him and stave off the approaching ice.

"I'm afraid Hell has currently frozen over," Raise said instantly regretting the joke. Each jet of flame did nothing but briefly melt the ice that rapidly solidified. With each step he took the ice seemed to shift further, moving slowly but inescapably towards the gigantic Kitsune.

"Hey, hey, you can't do this," the fox said clearly panicking as he approached. "I'm the heir to the Youkai faction, if you kill me that's the same as declaring war on the Youkai faction. Can your shitty faction even survive another war?"

"I am not my faction," Raise said. "And neither are you yours."

"Fuck this then," the huge fox said stepping backwards before opening up his mouth. "You forced me." The words had barely reached Raise before a jet of flame larger and hotter than ever before actually burst from his jaws like a volcano erupting. Raise could feel his very life force imbued into the heat of the attack and he couldn't imagine power like that could be invoked without consequence. It was an attack that would prove hard for him to block even with his ice so Raise didn't bother instead flying upwards invisibly and letting the illusion of the ice disappear and turn back to his Demonic Power.

Dropping down to the molten ground after thirty seconds of watching the entire area burn Raise was confronted by the cocky, yet tired looking brat that he had been fighting all along.

"I warned you," the fox said triumphantly. "No fucking devil could take my strongest attack and live. Blame your mother and father for not teaching you not to mess with a Nine-Tails."

"You are remarkably celebratory for the middle of a fight," Raise said and he watched as the fox's celebrations were immediately cut short and he gave one of the most shocked expressions Raise had seen in his life.

"No you can't be alive," he said inching backwards. "It's not possible. You should be dead, dead, dead. Hey there's no need to go further. If you just stop here the Youkai faction will forgive you…"

Raise had reached his limit of patience by this point. While he knew that he was probably giving Serafall more work in smoothing over this incident, he also knew that this absolute imbecile would probably inflict more death in future if he wasn't curtailed. With a thought he gathered the remaining Demonic Power and shaped it into something that the fox would surely recognize and with a snap of his fingers the Kitsune was bathed in white fire.

The scream that he set off was horrible as he increased the illusionary pain while toning down the effects of the actual fire. Without a doubt the fox would probably get mental scarring from this but sometimes mental scarring could do a person good. He survived it and what he was doing was trivial compared to what the Kitsune received. Another snap of his fingers extinguished the fire and he walked past the Nine-Tails.

"Reconsider your life," he said to the barely conscious Youkai before he retraced his steps to where the head of the Karasu-Tengu sat.

The shock and horror on the crow's face was not something that Raise relished seeing. Technically both him and the Youkai were at felt, with him wanting to gaze into a mirror that didn't belong to him and the Youkai overreacting to his relatively peaceful invasion. Still no doubt others would see it differently, but he hoped the crow had the sense to at least stop this fruitless opposition.

"The young Master," the head of the Karasu-Tengu said with more than a trace of fear in his eyes.

"Alive but not moving anytime soon," Raise responded flatly, seeing slight signs of relief in the crow's face. "Let's not beat around the bush any longer. I wish to view the mirror. I would have compensated you for your effort but I doubt any manner of compensation would matter at this point so I'm just going to come out and say it. Show me the mirror."

"I refuse," the crow said defiantly. "I can't," he amended upon seeing the young devils unamused gaze.

"You say you can't," Raise said sighing. "That either means it is sealed away in such a manner that you can't open it or you don't have it. This fortress was designated with the divine honour of keeping the Yata mirror. Either show me to the place it is sealed or tell me how you lost it."

"How could you know in the first place?" the Karasu-Tengu said and it was clear he was grasping at straws.

"I have my sources," Raise said locking eyes with the crow youkai, those being Kareta. He had given the information even as he admitted that it might be a bit outdated.

"It was stolen alright," the leader of the Karasu-Tengu said after a while. "More than ten years ago we were invaded in much the same manner as you attacked us."

"Oh by whom?" Raise asked. This was honestly the first time that he had heard of this happening.

"By somebody who even you won't be able to mess with," the crow said before sighing. "But sure I'll tell you. If you want the mirror so badly you can try stealing it from them. The one who took it was the one crowned emperor of all Oni; the one who is named Shuten-Douji."

"Oh," Raise said suddenly understanding just what their problems were. "That might prove tricky."

 **Author Note: Wow last chapter was the most controversial I've ever written. Thank you for all the reviews it was great. Surprisingly the one that actually did the most damage to my ego was Terranorth. Well done. I can possibly bullshit excuses but the real problem was that I didn't do enough timeline research. You've got me, those were my first real plot holes. But I've included both flashbacks and timeskips in this chapter so who knows. Maybe it will be just as controversial. Fingers crossed.**


	5. Chapter 5

"What the holy hell happened here," Serafall said as she looked on at the site of the current disaster. Blackened, burnt trees were encased in ice and the small portion of the ground that wasn't charred was frosted over. Throngs of various Youkai worked to clean up the shards of debris and burnt bodies that were occasionally found in the forest, although for the most part the Youkai appeared to be doing their best in avoiding one man in particular.

"I was hoping that you would actually be able to enlighten me," the person who spoke to her now was a bulky, bald man with a large red beard and bushy mustache, wearing a haori that left his muscular chest exposed. Thick arms crossed his seven foot tall body as he stroked his chin in contemplation. Lastly a pair of red ears and nine red tails displayed his status as a member of the most powerful form of his already powerful race. This was Eigo Katonori, the current leader of the Youkai faction and no devil or Youkai would ever deny that he lacked the power or intelligence to hold that spot.

"Why do you say that?" Serafall said turning towards him and trying to read his expression.

"I say that because the majority of this was caused by a devil," he said causing Serafall to bristle defensively at the implication before she calmed down. Thinking practically for a moment it was much better that he accuse her than Grayfia, the next most likely. While Serafall was a Satan and technically more important than her, Sirzechs would likely have reacted very poorly to the implication that his beloved wife was involved in a scandal and that was one devil who had quite a temper when his loved ones were involved.

"I can assure you that I was not involved," Serafall said firmly.

"And yet the ice bares your particular magical signature," Eigo rebutted immediately causing Serafall to pause for a moment before dashing to the frozen trees. The feeling of demonic energy was surely familiar to Serafall for she had felt it many times before but there was something off.

"Three years ago," she said to herself in realisation. "It feels exactly like my magic from three years ago." The particular feel of one's magic tended to stick to a specific spectrum but could change slightly based on training or lifestyle. Hers had changed a large amount over these three years.

A gasp to the side broke her musing and she turned to see her companion all decked out in a black full body cloak and hood. She had always been remarkably sharp, and ever since she had added her to her peerage a few years ago she had never regretted it, despite the chaos of the situation at the time. Although judging by the way this situation seemed to be developing maybe it was best if she gave her the week or the month off.

"That's very interesting," Eigo started. "But ultimately irrelevant. I already had a physical description of the devil and I can assure you that he does not share the attributes of either you or Lady Lucifer," he finished as he gestured to their chests offhandedly.

"Can you please give me the physical description?" Serafall asked ignoring his comments as she felt a knot in her stomach at the situation. Behind her she could almost feel the anticipation of her assistant as if it was a physical being.

"Certainly," Eigo said. "The lad had red hair, one arm, blue eyes, and used Senjutsu. I'm fairly certain that you could figure out an identity from that. It's not a set of common features."

"Raise," Serafall whispered to herself in a low tone, undetectable by devil ears but not the fluffy pair of the man in front of her.

"Raise," the man said digesting the syllables causing Serafall to start at the realisation that she had been overheard, her shock causing her to act unusually incautiously. "Oh are you worried I'm going to make demands for his head or something," he said inspecting Serafall's face for any confirmation. "Don't," he continued speaking after a second. "The irritation I feel with the young devil's presumptuousness is nothing compared to the sheer fucking stupidity that has apparently infected my own faction and my own son. The amount of work I am going to have to do in the next few weeks, to fix the problems that those bastards have given me is simply phenomenal."

"Do you need any help in fixing the problem," Serafall offered, a way to try and earn some goodwill from the faction if nothing else.

"Our relationship isn't nearly good enough for me to entrust you with this problem," Eigo said. "Still if you meet your friend and he happens to have picked up something of mine then please let him know I would be willing to reward him if he returned it."

"Will do," Serafall said nodding her head at the appeal. It was an easy request to honour and she wasn't going to miss a chance to meet Raise again. A gaze pierced her back and she turned slightly to find one brown eye fixed on her, barely visible beneath the darkness of her bishop's hood. All her excuses and reasons to give her a holiday died on her lips as the single amber eye speared through her. While technically she could overrule her as her king and command her to return to the underworld anyway, that sort of dictatorial command had never suited Serafall. Not to mention that she of all people had a right to be there.

"If you don't mind I have to go beat some sense into my son," Eigo said. "Don't start any shit in my country and we won't have a problem."

"We will be the absolute definition of inconspicuous," Serafall said politely to the faction leader and the larger man gave her one more searching look before he turned from her and left causing the tension of the nearby Youkai to visibly lower.

"Well then shall we go see if we can track down my fiancé," the voice said from beneath the hood, displaying no joy or sorrow or any other emotion at all.

"I guess so," Serafall said, and what more could she say than that. Unfortunately for her former friend the rules for Rating Games and for many other competitions amongst the supernatural require that the winner acknowledge their victory after the contest or else forfeit the match. Unfortunately on that day Raise had both won the match and automatically taken the second place.

"Dammit Raise," Serafall said once again risking the sanctity of her mind to curse out her friends reckless stupid actions.

Neither of them noticed a shadow high above in the frozen trees watching them both before swiftly disappearing.

xxx

Raise stood with his one hand in his pocket inspecting the building in front of him, passively sensing the various currents of energy that indicated the presence of the supernatural. He still wore his white hooded cloak and his hakama, that he had washed in the days since he had left the tattered remains of the crows fortress, but unlike before a pair of red fox ears sat atop his head and six red tails waved lazily behind him. Honestly he probably should have done this when he was originally looking for the mirror. No, on second thought those featherheads probably would still have been difficult but at least the fox would have been more welcoming; maybe.

He shook off his reminiscing and walked forward towards the pale wooden building, so different from any of the buildings humans made at this time, far more elegant and evidently created by creatures with far more time and wealth on their hands then the average humans. 'The so-called 'superior' races,' he thought with a mocking smirk. Then he dropped the smile from his face pushing the door of the building open to be confronted by a motley crew of miscellaneous Youkai.

As soon as he walked into the room the music stopped, whichever string instrument providing the ambience faded as the fingers dictating the notes stopped working. Nearly every head turned to look towards him as he entered the room and he was treated to the sight of a variety of different Youkai, some of which he had never seen before. Even with his added features none of them looked too eager to roll out the welcome mat, but at least it hadn't started with an immediate attack. There were too many places in this country where he had been forced to beat down an entire inn before finding out they had no information.

"We don't see too many new faces around here," the man in charge, a portly Kappa said gesturing around the room and Raise took a second to take in the scenery that was so traditionally Japanese. "Especially with all the troubles going around." He pulled out a saucer before filling it up with a jug that he had kept behind the counter. "Why don't you come in and take a load off?"

"I will take you up on that offer, but I'm afraid I'm afraid I'm here to sate my thirst for knowledge not liquor," Raise said as he took a seat ignoring the eyes that turned away from him and the eyes that didn't.

"That's a dangerous thing to be looking for," the Kappa said placing his webbed hands on the counter as he leaned forward, the dish on his head perfectly mirroring his movements. "Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you look like a weakling, I'm just saying that there are still some very dangerous guys around here who wouldn't like their secrets getting out."

"Really Gros, you're too afraid to call this prick a weakling," a loud raucous laughter broke through the susurrations and the cautiously restarted music causing Raise to frown, he was looking forward to listening to what was considered music here and he didn't care for interruptions. He turned his head eying down the man who had apparently felt it so necessary to interrupt; a black-haired vicious looking man with dog ears on his head and a relatively slender build, before he turned back to the Kappa he was talking to.

"If they didn't mind their secrets getting out then I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble trying to track them down," Raise said as if it were obvious.

"Hey don't you dare try and ignore me," the canine interrupter said and Raise could hear his footsteps approach him causing the disguised devil to let out a sigh of frustration. In every single one of these gathering spots for the supernatural he had discovered there had always been at least one. There was always a Youkai who wanted to assert his dominance or exploit him or fight him or even tried to have his children in one memorable occasion. He had no idea which specialised breeding program the Youkai had initiated to produce all these idiots and quite frankly he didn't care.

He didn't want to spend anytime arguing him nor did he want to inflict any damage to the building considering the portly Kappa had so far been upfront with him and so he took the easiest way out raising a hand behind him and snapping his fingers using Senjutsu once again to force the man to fall asleep and watching as he crumpled to the floor.

"Take a catnap," he said finishing off the alcohol he had been given casually watching as some of the other Yokai who started to stand up now sat down in their seats although many of them didn't return to what they were doing.

"Sorry about that," Gros said as he took back the now empty saucer. "Guy has a bit of a hothead, got that from his father, but he's not that bad really."

"That's good to hear," Raise said not really caring. "I'm looking for a very dangerous Yokai and I have information that he is somewhere around here." The Kappa's eyes that were previously full of mirth hardened and he nodded his head seriously.

"Continue," he said brusquely.

"Shuten-Douji," Raise said simply, watching as the surrounds once again went dead silent and he was confronted by harsh looks although pity and regret were among those looks as well. A few tables away a woman got up taking her children with her and leaving and at the table next to her an old man looked pitifully at Raise before shaking his head and continuing his meal.

"That's not a name that you want to invoke lightly kid," the Kappa who he was talking to said quietly. Raise looked at him quizzically and tossed down a few coins and the saucer that substituted as his cup was once again refilled. "A lot of people have lost men to that monster and his thugs."

"He has something that I need to obtain," Raise said simply drinking down that delightful liquid. The alcohol wouldn't actually affect him due to the effects of his devil constitution and his mastery over Senjutsu.

"Give it up," the Kappa said looking down at him fiercely. "I've seen dozens of young men over the years full of confidence and spirit come to this bar for the exact same reason and I've seen all of their broken bodies displayed after Shuten-Douji was done with them. Trust me when I say that while Raikou Minamoto tore him to pieces, all it did in the end was make him meaner. You will have no chance against that absolute monster."

"So he is here then," Raise said putting down his now empty saucer. "I had heard news that from others he was in the area but until now I wasn't sure until just now."

"You won't find him," the man said firmly. "Their hideout is hidden from any prying eyes. I'm afraid that not even I know where it is and I've lived here my whole life. Most of the others just meander around before his thugs pick them up and… break them," he said after a moment of hesitation.

"I should have no problems finding him as long as he is around here," Raise said truthfully. The radius of his Senjutsu was rather huge and if they were within a few miles of him he could easily sense their lifeforce. He dropped another few coins onto the table before he stood up turning away from the person who had served him.

"Don't do it boy," the man he had been speaking to reiterated once again with some desperation in his tone. "Every time one dies the body gets returned here and I'm forced to bury the pieces."

"Do you think that Shuten-Douji deserves to die?" Raise asked suddenly. "Do you think that the people of Japan will have better futures without him in it?"

"Lad you shouldn't," the man started but he was cut off by a small voice that quietly overrode his speech.

"Yes he deserves to die," a small black haired cat girl that reminded him of a younger version of his first Senjutsu teacher said, although her clothes were of far worse quality indicating a form of poverty that seemed quite common in Japan at the moment. She was sitting alone a few tables back drinking what looked to be milk from another one of the saucers that all the drinks were served in. The Nekomata turned away from her empty saucer towards him and Raise saw that she was missing her left leg from above the knee.

"Your personal experience?" Raise asked taking a look at her missing arm as he subconsciously rubbed his illusionary right hand.

"Saiko," Gros said slowly, sadness inherent in his voice. He was probably going to say something more but he was cut off by the diminutive cat girl who reached for crutches leaning against the table before standing up and walking over to the disguised devil.

"Yes, Shuten-Douji's men took my leg, the lives of my parents and our small community," she started with genuine anger in her voice. "He killed those that couldn't work and enslaved those that could. I was the only person to escape. Well most of me," she finished gesturing to her leg with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

"I see," Raise said. "It does make it a bit easier if I can kill him without reservations and take what I want over his dead body." The entire room went quiet at that for a moment before a monkey faced Youkai burst out into laughter.

"Should we update the list of fools, Gros," he said to the man in charge of the inn who was cleaning with his head down obviously uncomfortable. "I guess I'll have to keep my schedule open to bury another body."

"Can you do it?" Saiko said her large catlike eyes trained on Raise's face.

"I believe so," Raise said after a few moments of contemplation. "I'm one of the strongest," he said and it was the truth. He could easily call himself an Ultimate-Class devil in power, not that he would say that considering that nobody but devils used that system of ranking and even then there was such a discrepancy between individuals within the ranks that the whole thing was worthless as a measure of any strength.

"If you can restore my leg I will lead you there myself," she said gesturing towards the space where her leg may have once been in the past. As soon as she said that there was an outcry throughout the tavern in the form of a cacophony of voices saying too many things to single any out. Only Gros was silent as he watched the byplay between the two of them.

"Well," Saiko said. "I can tell you can use Senjutsu after all." The surrounding crowd drew quiet at that. "I know it a bit of it as well and I recognised it when you used it against Guy. I know that I would get slaughtered, enslaved and worse if I was going to act as you appear to want to. If you were really a Senjustu Master than you would be able to at least start to grow back my leg." She laughed bitterly as Raise just stared at her before continuing to walk towards the door.

"So you couldn't do it," the girl said dejectedly as she looked down at her one foot.

"Well are you coming?" Raise asked giving her a grin as he turned around. At the same moment with the sound of shattering glass the empty space where she stood disappeared to be replaced by a perfectly healthy leg. Raise smiled as she watched her face change from despair, to disbelief, to shock and awe before settling on firm resolve.

"I will serve you," she said gratefully, those words causing a sickening ripple to writhe through Raise's chest. "Until I've repaid you for giving me back my leg."

"Why don't you try a way of paying me back that doesn't spit on my principles," Raise offered. "If you want to repay me then you can show me where Shuten-Douji camps out."

"At once," the cat-eared girl said as she started to walk towards him only to stumble over her newly regrown leg. Raise caught her as she fell, gently pulling her to her feet. "I can't walk very well for the moment but if you can carry me then I can show you the way."

Raise contemplated her request for a moment before nodding and swinging her onto her back. She weighed barely anything and would barely slow him down when running although he intended on leaving her well before he got to his location. Turning around he was surprised to hear the sound of clapping behind him, slowly at first and then building until the entire room was applauding. Congratulations were shouted to the Nekomata on the shoulder and wishes of good luck were aimed at him. Apparently that display had impressed them enough to get them to cheer for him after all. Those were his thoughts as he opened up the door and stepped outside into the dewy meadow that surrounded the building.

"Senjutsu Masters are rare and always revered," Saiko said before pointing off into a random direction after which Raise took off running. The girl on his back barely slowed him down as his natural devil strength, enhanced with Senjutsu, was not slowed down by her weight or his damaged leg. Actually his leg had been far better lately, most likely while he hadn't actively healed it, the passive Senjutsu training he did had made it a lot stronger compared to before.

"To be honest the real reason why I wanted to serve you was to hope that you would teach me to complete my Senjutsu training," she admitted. "My parents never finished and there were no Masters that would take in a girl missing half her leg."

"Couldn't they just grow back your leg if they were truly a Master?" Raise said keeping his eyes out for obstacles as he continued his conversation with the young girl. "I truly doubt you've met many masters. Remember that an amateur looks like a Master to a beginner and a user does the same to an amateur."

"I see, and only a Master could have grown back my leg," she said in contemplation to herself.

"Truthfully there are a few people who could do that for some sort of compensation," Raise said. "But the compensation wouldn't be small."

They travelled in silence for over an hour as the open space gave way to forest and Raise moved through it without slowing down at all. The girl had long stopped her slight squirming and gone motionless holding onto his shoulders. While he had detected various signatures throughout the land all of them were far too ordinary to be his target and he took note to avoid them to save on time.

"What object does he have of yours?" the Nekomata said filling the silence with awkward questions. Answering that question would open a whole can of worms that anybody would be hesitant to deal with.

"I'm looking for the Yata Mirror," Raise said deciding to go for it anyway. He enjoyed talking and cans of worms were made to be opened after all.

"Wait why would that brute have the Yata Mirror," Saiko said after a while. "Doesn't that belong to Lady Amaterasu?"

"It was given to the Youkai faction over a century ago as a sign of goodwill," Raise said shrugging. "The crows were told to look after it but they messed up and Shuten took the prize."

"That's awful," Saiko said with genuine horror in her voice. "Wait does that mean that there could be a war?"

"I highly doubt that," Raise said immediately. "Amaterasu seems to be a relatively peaceable deity and I highly doubt that she would cause destruction over the loss of something she gave freely." He considered for a moment. "It will leave the entire Youkai faction in a bad position diplomatically and make them look weak."

"Is that why you are hunting down the mirror?" Saiko asked and for a moment Raise thought he could see stars in her eyes. "You're like an elite warrior sent to hunt down and retrieve the mirror?"

"I'm afraid not," Raise said. "I only want to look into the mirror. I have no further use with it after that."

"That's surprising," Saiko said with clear amazement. "What does the mirror do then if would do all this work for a look."

"It reflects the user, what else?" Raise said flatly.

"You're kidding," Saiko replied immediately with some indignation. "You can just tell me you don't want to tell me and I won't pry."

"No that's pretty much all it does," Raise said. "One look into the mirror and the user's true self will be laid bare. All the lies and illusions that they tell themselves will be stripped away and their heart will be displayed before them. Apparently it's quite a horrifying process," he finished off snappily.

"Wait, then why do you want to do that?" Saiko quizzed him.

"Don't you know Saiko," Raise said, teasingly addressing the young catgirl. "All the best medicine is accompanied by pain, that's how you know its working." He smiled although the girl couldn't see it considering she was on his back. "I'm actually anticipating and dreading what the mirror shows me in equal measures," he continued. "I mean what if I find out that deep down I desire nothing but destruction. That my anger and fear are all that lies beneath the thin film that I call Raise Gre…"

"So you're scared of some deep down evil side," Saiko said as the disguised devil fell silent mid-sentence.

"I know I have a darker side," Raise said quietly before shaking his head and laughing. "Look at me. I'm not even scared of storming the base and attacking Shuten-Douji if you can believe that. A bunch of murderous, slaving abominations, outcast from their own faction fill my criteria of acceptable targets so neatly that I can kill them all without even worrying and yet..." He shook his head. "Thank you," he said briefly. "It's been a while since I've talked about this with my mentor and this whole enterprise has gotten be a little stressed."

"Glad to help, but we're getting closer to the hideout," she said as the trees thinned to reveal a huge mountain that was hidden by a decently crafted illusion. "You should be able to feel it now."

"I can," Raise replied as he felt a large number of sources of ki inside the building. Some were weak barely holding onto life while a few of the larger ones were even greater than Kaita in power. The largest completely overshadowed his Kitsune friend; but for all its power, it was wounded, broken beyond repair.

A portion of the stronger life forces, fourteen sources in total broke off from the mountain and converged on his position and Raise realised that he must have tripped some ward or been sensed by some sentry or something. This wasn't against his expectations considering the fact that he had already decided not to employ stealth in this mission. When he had heard the sins of the creatures at the bar he had already decided to leave none of them alive. Honestly at this point Raise was not sure what his official policy on killing was. When he was younger he seriously disliked it, seeing it as a way to permanently cut off a person's ability to choose. But as he got older and especially over these last three years he had begun to find it less abhorrent. Maybe getting older caused your ideals to slip.

He looked back at Saiko, before resolving to wait a bit before dropping her off. While preserving innocence was a worthwhile undertaking, she had long ago lost her own to the animals bearing down on them. In Raise's mind it would do her good to see her tormentors punished. Besides he would be unable to protect her if he chose to leave her behind and she was basically unable to protect herself against anything stronger than a particularly violent piece of scenery.

Raise was thinking all of this as he headed towards the fourteen advancing sources of Ki. He didn't slow down at all, instead accelerating and in a few moments the Oni appeared in his sights. With muscled red skin they stood over three metres high with large horns on their head and large fangs in their mouth. They wore leather and fur and were wielding an assortment of dangerous looking weapons.

"Halt…" the first one began but Raise had no intention of talking with corpses. Every single time he had spoken of Shuten-Douji and his Oni he had heard nothing in return but of the evils they committed. All across the land, in gatherings, temples and castles he had heard whispers of the vicious Oni and the horrors they inflicted on Youkai and humans alike. Thus after speaking with Saiko earlier today he had already resolved himself to kill every single one of them hunkering under their hidden mountain. His six tails extended and the tangible illusion made of his energy tore into their bodies, his potent Senjutsu severing their lifeforce. All fourteen corpses fell to the ground behind his back as he continued onwards and up the mountain.

"They were actually weak," Saiko said and Raise could hear the unspoken question in her tone. 'If they were so weak how did they destroy my village?'

"You never send out your strongest warriors first," Raise answered her unspoken question. "I'm certainly strong enough to wipe out your village on my own so keep in mind that your way of measuring will probably not work." That answer didn't seem to satisfy her but she didn't dwell on it instead raising an arm and pointing to a familiar type of magic.

There's a mountain here," Saiko said causing Raise to nod in agreement. "You shouldn't be able to see it because it's behind an illusion."

"It's a decent illusion but nowhere near enough to fool me," Raise said seeing through the well-made barrier. "Hold on tight and I'll keep you safe."

"Wait you're not going to…" Saiko started but was cut off as Raise jumped up in the air hardening platforms of wind before launching himself upwards to the small cave entrance he had found on the sheer rock face. He personally had no idea how the land-bound Oni managed to enter through there but he the twin sources of ki he sensed left no doubt that it was in use. Reaching forward with a left arm composed purely of Touki he grabbed onto the ledge before pulling himself forward with all the force of an elastic band, instantly decapitating two Oni that were stationed at the entrance with his Touki-coated illusionary tails.

Besides the two Oni corpses a human woman knelt in the process of doing something that Raise really didn't really feel like describing and he hastily raised his hand to cover Saiko's line of sight of the partially undressed, screaming woman. After a moment of awkwardness he instead he launched himself forward down one of the hallways towards the most numerous gathering of ki. He noticed that high above him at the peak of the mountain, the largest source of ki stirred in awareness of him and for a moment he thought that it would attack him. But the gigantic lifeforce ceased its movement, apparently unwilling to attack him or apathetic towards the lives of its followers.

Taking advantage of Shuten-Douji's idleness he slipped through into a large dining room in which dozens of Oni sat tearing into… meat of familiar, worrying shapes, served by hundreds of humans who wore despair like a mask over their faces. Righteous fury burned in his breast and he manifested his Touki before lunging at the first Oni and tearing him in half in one swift slash of his Touki infused hands. Using the Oni corpse as a springboard he launched himself upwards and onto the enormous table before launching illusionary blades of wind at the nearest monsters tearing them into pieces.

The entire process happened so fast that it was only at this point that the first, more aware Oni had started to draw their weapons. But even those that had drawn their weapons and were close enough to the disguised devil had no way of fending off the tails that suddenly extended penetrating through their bodies and tearing out their lifeforce. Raise stalked the dozens of Oni left at that point using his entire arsenal to tear through the bandits, murderers and slavers. Quantity met quality and was overwhelmingly defeated as the Oni bravely leapt into battle and then nervously tried to defend themselves and then tried to surrender and then were finally burnt to cinders as they were running away. Mercy had no place on this battlefield and especially not for ones such as these.

Though honestly judging by the amount of humans they had abducted and… feasted upon; their demise had been all but assured already. While some individuals of a species may behave cruelly towards humans and even kill them there was an instinctive desire to not do too much damage to humanity overall. Individuals and species that went against that subconscious directive would not last long, as heroes would appear to kill the offending Devil, Monster, Youkai or God. For all their many weaknesses humans possessed both the most potent power and the closest connection to the Source. Perhaps the suffering of humans under this Oni had indirectly caused him to appear today and liberate them.

"Raise," Saiko said sounding rather queasy. "I think I'm going to be sick." The young devil couldn't really blame her for that. The smell of cooking meat, the contents of the cooking meat and the state of the bedraggled humans around them was something that could turn some of the hardest stomachs. Still he would prefer if she wasn't sick on his back so with the utmost gentleness that a person with one arm could achieve he set her down on the floor next to him.

"Saviour, monsters, dead, cat, Shuten-Douji," whispers erupted between the humans as they fervently glanced at Raise. "Help, freedom, monsters, eat, hide," the voices continued as Raise debated what to do with them.

"Saiko can you escort them outside," he said extending his senses to cover the mountain picking up the sources of ki that remained. "Things will likely only get worse from here on out."

"Okay," the smaller girl said before turning to the humans. "Listen up," she said addressing the humans. "You're okay now. Follow me and I'll lead you to safety." The humans hesitated in their actions as they looked upon their rescuers with hollow eyes and clothed in rags before one of the older men nodded and walked towards the smaller girl. It took only a few moments before all of the former captives surrounded Raise's companion looking to her for guidance. Saiko looked nervous for a while before she schooled her face into a look of determination and turned to Raise.

"Give him hell for me will you," she said before she turned around leading them to the entrance. Raise briefly debated whether he should remind her that the entrance they came in was a sheer drop and then decided against it. Saika would eventually find her way down and if Raise finished in short time he would lend them his assistance. Still it appeared that none of the other light sources of ki were converging on his location meaning that he would have to put in some effort of having to search them out.

xxx

 **30 minutes later**

"Make one more movement and the bitch gets chopped in two," a predominantly scarred looking Oni said as he held a defenceless woman in one hand and brandished a heavy cleaver in the other while he talked to his illusion. In the next second he lost the arm holding the cleaver and his head simultaneously and the sobbing woman was caught before being set down onto the bloody floor.

"The others have left," I said to the woman. "You should try and follow them out." I reached outwards with my Senjutsu feeling the lifeforce of the humans that were somehow descending the mountain and I exerted my magic to create illusions of arrows that lead to their direction, regretting the fact that I had none of my butterflies with me. "Follow the arrows and you should be fine. In about five minutes this mountain might not exist anymore."

She didn't answer; instead she only looked terrified and ran out of the room in a direction that thankfully followed the arrows. That was lucky for her considering the fact that Raise was really not exaggerating about the mountains future lack of stability. The ki of the surrounding Oni was now completely snuffed out except for one large prominent source that must be Shuten-Douji. Even now the amount of ki that the creature gave off exceeded the combined amount of everybody else in the mountain. If he had worked together with all the other Oni, they would probably have just died due to collateral damage in the ensuing fight.

Still it would have at least paused Raise's destructive rampage if he had shown a little compassion for his own men. A few good qualities and Raise may have been hesitant to end him. In a twisted way it could be considered a favour to Raise that he had displayed himself to be such a worthless pile of excrement; it removed any hesitations he had in severing his neck.

It was a quiet walk up to the scum's lair and Raise had plenty of time to order his thoughts as he ascended the steps that led to the summit before reaching a large double door at the top with ornate knockers which he swiftly kicked open, shattering the bar on the other side and sending parts of door flying into the room.

One of the doors was crushed to pieces before it reached the end of the room as a large, bulging muscular scarlet arm crashed into it. Attached to that arm was a barrel like torso which led to a face with a wide maniacal grin beneath four horns. Shuten-Douji was in every sense an Oni, if a foot or two greater in height with the stench of hedonism about him. Unlike the other Oni he was wearing comparatively nice clothing, dressed in the garb of the local samurai as he was which hung open revealing a gaping wound that leaked trickles of blood.

"Impressive, devil," he stated seeing through Raise's illusion somehow. "To take out my whole fortress of Oni and come here to kill me."

"You assume your death already," Raise said. "What if I was here to drop off some noodles?"

"Unless they taste like the flesh of those cattle below I doubt anybody is interested," the Oni leader said as he remained on guard. His words caused Raise's face to darken and he let out a sigh.

"Well I'm afraid you're right," he confirmed as he readied his magic power. "Originally I came for the Yata mirror but I cannot turn my head away and let something like you live."

"So you seek the mirror as well," the Oni said and suddenly a blue-tinted mirror appeared in front of him. Raise looked away from it as he did so. To look into the mirror was an endeavour Raise was not looking to do in the middle of battle. This moment was all that the enemy needed and Raise's illusions was hit by a fist that caused a sonic boom as it passed through him and obliterated the top of the stairs. Raise turned summoning an illusion of fire before putting more energy turning it into the kitsune fire that his master had showed him.

Shuten-Douji screamed in pain as his flesh was seared; but it didn't slow him down any more as he swung his fist once again at the location of Raise which the young devil jumped over before kicking the head of his opponent. His kick backed by sheer devil strength and the power of Senjutsu barely phased him and Raise found his leg grabbed by the Oni who tossed him through the stone floor and he collapsed to the floor below it. A shift in the natural energy and he caught his opponent's fist with his tails before he grabbed him with the rest of tails and slammed him repeatedly on the floor next to him.

In the next second he felt his tails grasped and he dispelled the energy causing the Oni to stumble before he created an illusion of a lightning bolt and shifted the energy to that of pure natural static discharge causing the unfortunate Oni to be hit with millions of volts of electricity causing his muscles to spasm and the floor of the room to melt from the pure heat. Without time to pause he instantly recreated one of Serafall's moves and turned the entire area into an icy hellscape before he lashed out with his reconstituted tails attempting to burrow into his frozen body and extract the lifeforce. His tails managed to penetrate his skin only to be confronted by a vast ocean of ki, far outstripping any of the grunts he had attacked before. Switching tactics he tried to sever his life force but a thick mangled and bloody arm emerged from the ice and punched his chest stabbing into the flesh for a moment before he was thrown through the walls of the room.

Raise dug his hands into the stone killing his momentum before dodging a lightning fast blow from his opponent. In return he lashed out with his foot channelling his Touki into a spike and driving it into the back of the Oni's leg. Despite the force of the blow it barely penetrated and Raise was forced to backpedal to avoid being sliced up by a returning swipe of his clawed hands. His opponent moved fast, hit hard and could take hits without flinching so Raise decided to mix it up and when next the Oni came at him he created primordial illusions backed up with Senjutsu and hit the Oni with a sense of pure fatigue. Movements slowed and he went on the offensive covering his limbs and tails with Touki while stepping forward and delivering punch after punch into the enemy's body. If one blow wouldn't break a bone then he used two, if not two then four. The Kitsune style that he was taught emphasised attack using an overwhelming number of limbs and this combined with Senjutsu tracking his movements and the artificial fatigue allowed him to pressurise the Oni, overwhelming him in the very style that he was strongest in. With one last punch he knocked him backwards before grabbing him with his tails and slamming him down on the floor repeatedly until the floor caved in and he dropped him in the room below.

White hot illusionary fire became real and Raise watched stoically as one of Japan's three great evils burnt to death beneath the hungry flames. He was naturally worried that the mirror would be damaged by the inferno but his mentor had informed him that the mirror was beyond hard to destroy and would likely require someone on the level of his brother exerting effort to damage it.

Sighing he turned away determined to take the stairs down and let the fire run its course when he felt a wave of power hit him like a hammer to the back. He stumbled upright and his eyes widened in disbelief as he saw a fiery blackened figure emerge from the flames. Skin burnt and peeling off the bones, all clothing in tatters and blood flowing from his wounds and yet an overwhelming golden aura poured out from his body to the extent that Raise was having trouble even standing there. And sitting on his chest was a comma shaped jewel, one that Raise had heard of before.

"The Yasakani no Magatama," he said seeing another legendary treasure in front of him. The famous jewel was somehow replenishing his energy; no that was divine energy. Somehow the jewel was pumping massive quantities of divinity into the body of Shuten-Douji. Raise further took a step back as the Yata Mirror appeared on his left arm while a sword he recognized as the Kusunagi Blade appeared on his right. Divine power surged and Raise took to the skies, only to get hit by a tornado and flung far away. He kicked off the air launching himself to the ground a moment before the air itself tried to kill him with countless formless spikes of wind.

Dropping into an empty field Raise took a moment to appreciate just how far he had been flung by that tornado. The mountain that had served as the basis of Shuten-Doujis operations that once loomed large now sat far away on the horizon and could now be covered by a single hand. That sight didn't last long as in the next second the mountain exploded, no it was vaporised in a golden light and it was only by Raise's deep knowledge of Senjutsu that he was able to avoid the meteorite that hit the field obliterating it and everything around it for miles.

Raise touched down gently on the field and was immediately forced to summon one of Serafall's Ice walls that held for less than a second before it crumbled between the sheer might of divine power that flowed from the monstrosity. Raise growled and fired a bolt of lightning that was blocked by the mirror and then he was forced to dodge to the side as a massive seemingly-bottomless trench formed in his former location.

He had no time to relax as a fist with glowing gold energy in front of him and he was forced to block it with both hands only for the impact to bruise his bones and launch him backwards hundreds of metres. Raise dug his tails into the ground before flipping himself upwards and immediately bending backwards to dodge a kick with the power to bisect him. Tails launched towards his opponent only to be repelled by the divine energy that was being released and Raise was forced to endure retaliation as his opponent moved his sword and the surrounding air physically threw him down to the ground.

Just as he was getting up he felt the wind wrap around his body again holding him in place. Divine energy infused the area and he felt, more than saw, a fist ram into his body with all the power of a mountain falling before he went flying. Raise coughed blood as he felt several of his organs burst and he used Senjutsu to speed up the healing process even as he was forced to push of the air to dodge another one of those deadly blows.

Shuten-Douji appeared as if from nowhere, swinging both of his fists in a single strike with meteoric power. With the power within his fists he shattered that they were fighting on and punched through Raise's illusion. In an instant Shuten-Douji found himself alone on the battlefield with no trace of his devil opponent. Wiping off the blood on his face he sat down and took a few breaths as the aura of divinity seemed to fade making him look even worse.

"I didn't want to go this far," he said, his voice containing misery that Raise couldn't find himself to care about. "Releasing that energy is certain to get those pesky gods to show up in a while. When they come I will not be ready for them." These words were said with a slowly brewing undercurrent of anger. "The people that you rescued are not too far away. I can sense them from here. Know that if you flee from this battle then I will leave, hunt them down and tear them to shreds before feasting on them."

"There is no need for that," Raise said as he appeared about a dozen metres away.

"So you actually care about those insects after all," he said giving the younger devil an unamused look. "To throw away your only chance at surviving for them."

"Make no mistake, I am going to win this fight here," Raise countered as he stared at his hated opponent. "But you really took me off guard when you did that," he continued seemingly oblivious to the hatred of his opponent. "I haven't even seen divine energy before this day but now I see that it truly does live up to its status as the second most potent form of energy; the powers that the gods wield are truly without peer."

"Second?" Shuten-Douji asked as he felt the slightest feelings of concern start to stir inside of him.

"Of course," Raise said with some contempt in his voice. "You wouldn't even know where that divinity comes from. You just put on a divine artefact and suddenly you believe you're god material." He shook his head as demonic energy flared up around him. "You're pumping the powers of gods into your veins with no comprehension or understanding." The demonic energy started to rise further before coalescing around the young devil. "I used to think that it would take me hundreds of years to truly understand the Source. To emulate it would take me even longer. Today you have shortened my journey and bestowed on me great knowledge and while that ultimate goal is still out of my reach." Raise grinned and the world around him exploded as the demonic energy wavered before taking on an oppressive golden aura mimicking that of the Oni. "Let me show you what I've learnt."

Golden flames wreathed Raise's hands before launching forward in the form of a barrage of snakes that lashed out at the deviant Oni scorching the ground and turning the earth into a volcanic hell. The Oni instead of retreating pushed through the flames and Raise greeted him by forming two large clawed hands of Touki that glowed golden before he thrust them forward piercing the body of the Oni before throwing him back.

"I wonder if I should start calling myself God Raise," the aforementioned devil said as he walked forward. "My name does mean Ascend after all." He looked over at his beleaguered opponent. Despite the raging battle he felt a dissonance between him and the world around him.

"How are you doing this?" the Oni screamed picking himself up. Blood flowed profusely from his wounds but even now his life still raged strong.

"Honestly I think I can only do this right now because of you Shuten-Douji," Raise said smiling despite the carnage. "Can you not feel the hatred pressing down on you; the desire of the world to be without you. You should be dead and I'm afraid the universe is just using me as a tool to fix that little issue. Still it's not to my disadvantage Shuten-Douji. I've learnt so much. As my thanks I shall swiftly destroy you."

"I'm not dead yet bastard," the Oni raged rushing forward in a manner more akin to an animal than a thinking being.

"Let me rectify that," Raise said still calmly as he walked calmly through the molten hellscape. The Kusunagi blade was aimed at his neck only for him to step slightly backwards and out of range as his new burst of energy combined with his Senjutsu allowed him to easily read the patterns of his opponents. In retaliation his fist covered in sharp claws of Touki gouged into the Oni's body cutting deep into the skin and drawing blood that was a mix of red and golden. The beast hissed in pain and jumped forward only for him reach out and grab him with all of his tails, multiplying the amount into dozens instead of a comparatively meagre nine. Shuten-Douji fought against it as the Kusunagi blade chopped through dozens of them, throwing out blades of wind each way but Raise summoned an illusion of light around the Oni, blinding him, before transforming the light into a spear and using it to expertly sever the fingers on his right hand causing the blade to fall limply from his hand.

A simple gust of his own wind and the blade was in Raise's hand and then the butchery began. The Oni howled in madness from his many bleeding wounds before he was crushed down by the weight of pressure thousands of times greater than normal. That distraction proved enough for Raise to close the distance and he tore off the Yata mirror that he wore on his left forearm before yanking the Yasakani no Magatama on his neck. As a finale Raise stabbed all of his tails into his defeated opponent before drinking in the vast amount of ki still remaining in his body and then the leftover divine energy granted by the Yasakani no Magatama.

When his work was done all that remained was a blackened withered corpse standing upwards with a face frozen in horror and terror. Still if there was a person that ever deserved pity than Shuten-Douji was not that person. Suddenly he stumbled as a bone-deep wariness hit him causing him to rock on his feet. His mind turned blank and his head felt fuzzy causing his hands to twitch uncontrollably and the tools that he had recovered tumbled from his hands as his energy hit zero. The divinity around him faded and he fell to his knees only to be caught before he could hit the floor.

"That was a respectable battle," the irrefutably feminine voice said and Raise felt a surge of the now-familiar divine energy pass through his entire body nourishing it and soothing his wounds. Still his mind ached without reprieve and he felt the edges of his sight darken. More words were said but the melodious tone of the apparent goddess's words were unable to part any further meaning into his brain before he fell unconscious.

xxx

 **Later**

Raise's return to consciousness was an undramatic thing. One moment he was sinking in an ocean of blackness and the next he awakened to the sound of bird song and the radiant sun shining down upon him. The bed in which he lay was immensely comfortable, even better than his bed three years ago and he reflexively turned his body burrowing further into the covers. His moment of relaxation lasted only a scant few seconds as a slight shuffling in the room had him at full alert. He didn't leap out of the bed or make any sudden movement though. Instead he slowly turned his head towards the source of the noise and his eyes widened as he saw one of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Long black hair dropped down far past her shoulder and eyes of burning gold regarded him with amusement. Her face was statuesque in a manner that just fell short of being too perfect. All of this was backed up with an ocean of divine power that dwarfed that of the empowered Shuten-Douji. She was clad in a beautiful white kimono, decorated with pictures displaying some story that Raise was not familiar with.

"Greetings young one," she said as she smiled warmly. "You may call me Amaterasu."

"My name is Raise," the young devil replied as politely as possible, shocked that he was meeting somebody who was regarded as the face of the Shinto faction. He sat up straighter, taking in the elegance of the room as he did so that even surpassed his old one.

"I know," she said with a wry smile on her face. "I saw your performance at Kyoto a few years ago." She smiled beatifically. "You have come far since then. If you do ascend to godhood let me offer you a spot with my faction."

"You saw that," Raise said feeling slightly humiliated. He had spoken a lot more than normal in that battle and said some embarrassing things. "But I would rather aim for becoming a dragon instead."

"How bold, to say that in front of an actual goddess," Amaterasu said as she raised her hand in front of her mouth to muffle her giggling. "Have you ever heard of the legend of Dragon's Gate, Raise."

"A carp reached the top of a waterfall and the gods transformed him into a dragon," Raise said having heard the story many times before. "Isn't that a Chinese story though?"

"We tend to borrow a bit of their…" Amaterasu's voice trailed off as she turned away her face turning slightly red. "That is a subject for another time," Amaterasu finished waving off the plagiarism. "It's a beautiful story about determination and continuing even when others give up, but you must realise that the dragon ends up alone in the end, Raise. It rose to the top and it was rewarded with solitude."

Raise didn't answer. That was not a question that could be easily answered. His lust for freedom; had left him alone when he abandoned the underworld and his family and friend. His refusal to play along with society had lost him any chance of making friends with his peers and his refusal to even contemplate love had lost him the guidance of his first teacher. Even more recently his refusal to settle down had led to him splitting from the two kitsune. Dozens of people came into his life and he let them go just as easily without truly letting them in, with the exception of one Satan.

"For what reason did you hunt down Shuten-Douji," Amaterasu said after about a minute of silence. "By no means am I disappointed that his life has finally come to an end, but it is rather strange for a devil to seek him out."

"I was looking for the Yata mirror," Raise said immediately, finding it pointless to try and hide it considering that the mirror was now most likely in the goddess' possession.

"I just happen to have that on me," the goddess of the sun stated, confirming Raise's thoughts. "You do realise that the mirror is actually the weakest in terms of combat, but I suspect that's not why you want it." She moved her hand and golden dust billowed out from the sleeve of her kimono before coalescing into the form of a mirror that hung in mid-air without support.

"Be careful Raise," she said turning to face the younger devil once again. "Looking into the mirror isn't inherently dangerous but it can often lead to some unpleasant thoughts. You might think you are an all-powerful and wise goddess of the sun and then find out that you're nothing but an immature selfish little girl that would let her kingdom and people be plunged into darkness over her wounded pride." There was a hint of ruefulness in her tone and she gave Raise one last shining smile, before light engulfed her and she disappeared from the room.

Raise sat on the bed alone, clad in some silken pyjamas, as he regarded the mirror from afar. Slowly after a few seconds contemplation he got up and off of the bed and started inching towards the mirror, feeling equal parts excitement and dread at the sight that he would see before him. The mirror had a golden frame but otherwise no adornment and Raise idly remarked that it looked comparatively plain for such an important relic of Shinto culture.

He was stalling again as he had a tendency to do whenever life changing events happened upon him, but just knowing that he was doing it didn't make it any easier for him to stop. With an effort of will he jerked his head from examining the frame and directed his attention straight at the mirror.

His reflection stared back at him. It was a few seconds before he felt the tension leave him and he found a peal of laughter slipped involuntarily from his throat as he did so.

"I don't find anything about the situation funny," a stern powerful voice spoke from behind him and Raise found himself whirling on his feet only to see… himself. Or at least somebody who looked a lot like himself if he was a couple of inches taller and had two fully functional arms crossed over his chest. A crimson mantle was draped over his shoulders and the rest of his clothing was impeccably smart and tidy, probably costing a fortune to create. Two blue eyes pierced into Raise's own as if he was looking straight through him and after a moment he nodded.

"You have good eyes," he stated. "In a few more years you might be worth something."

"I would claim that I'm worth something now," Raise said not backing down despite the imposing aura. Just being close to this being, no that was incorrect; just being close to this version of himself was overpowering as if his presence alone could destroy Raise.

"To have worth is to provide value to somebody," Alternate Raise said. "Something in your entire life you have never done. You've sponged off your parents, Sirzhecs, Grayfai, Serafall and all of your teachers. You haven't actually done anything productive."

"I've just killed a monster and rescued his prisoners. I've returned the treasures and saved the people of Japan," Raise responded angrily at having the not-entirely unfamiliar words thrown at his face.

"You've saved a few humans that will likely die anyway with the war raging on in these lands," Alternate Raise said his aura rising as he continued to speak. "You didn't even intend to take back the treasures and in fact it was Amaterasu who ultimately achieved them. Well done you've rendered aid to a faction that is often opposed to your own. Congratulations on your display of gratitude."

"All of that help I was given was of their own free will," Raise defended himself. "I didn't …"

"Didn't want it," Alternate Raise said. "Of course you wanted it. You were probably even a little grateful, but this absolute madness centred on freedom continues to completely fuck both you and everybody around you over."

Raise's eyes narrowed at his alternate's display of profanity but he didn't get a chance to reply as his alternate continued to lay into him.

"Just what do you think you will find at the end of this road," Other Raise said sounding more and more disappointed with every word he spat out. "Is it happiness, because I'm telling you there is none in the path that you've chosen? Look at me Raise. This mirror is just telling you what you already know. I am happy. I've become the newest Satan. I have wealth. I have power."

"Do you think I want…?" Raise started.

"I have Serafall in my bed every night," Alternate Raise said softly. "She even invites others over. She built me a whole harem. I'm constantly attended to by a horde of girls that love and appreciate me."

"I don't need that," Raise said only to watch in disbelief as his alternate nodded along.

"I only need one," he said and for the first time since he had seen him there was a genuine smile on his face. "The mirror can only show you what you already know Raise." He lifted his hand up in what appeared to be a final plea and Raise found his own hand lifting, almost subconsciously.

"That does sound pretty fun," a new voice spoke up breaking through the reverie and causing Raise to whirl to look at the new arrival. A third Raise stood examining the Yata mirror before he turned around and grinned at the pair of them. "Are you done? Should I go now?"

The newest alternate wore strange clothes with weird patterns that gave off a casual air. He stood at a shorter height than the first but he also had both his arms with hands that were deep in the pockets of the short pants he wore. Unlike the overbearing aura of the first one, he had no presence whatsoever as if Raise was unable to perceive him.

"I spoke no lie," the first Alternate defended himself.

"I can confirm that," the second replied glibly. "What he speaks of is a very real possibility. It is a true ending where you are somewhat happy."

"Somewhat," the first responded as he narrowed his eyes. "I am completely happy."

"You can never be," the second said cheerfully. "Inside your head, now and for eternity will be that little bit of you that says. 'What if I hadn't given up? What if I had stayed the course?" The second one looked intently at the first. "Tell me; do you ever resent Serafall for being the reason that you gave up?"

"Never," the first responded as the Power of Destruction covered his body and he looked ready to destroy his alternate.

"That's good at least," the second said.

"Wait," Raise piped up destroying their interaction. "Can you tell me if that path is worth it? Is it worth giving up…?"

"How do you score a life," the Second Raise said, for the first time since he got here the alternate was deadly serious. "Unlike my compatriot I will not pretend that either path you take is not a valid one, nor will I pretend that on either road you will have to give something up. How could I? I have always believed in your ability to choose and I will accept that either one of these choices is valid." He suddenly grinned dropping that serious look on his face. "I might just push my point a bit and say that you're very close to evolving, my little Magikarp."

"What nonsense are you speaking," both the First Alternate and the original Raise said at the same time.

"Sorry you'll find out in about five hundred years," he said with a cheeky grin as he ruffled Raise's hair. "Remember the difference between an illusion and reality is less than you think." Those were the last words that he spoke before he faded away leaving the First Alternate alone with the present Raise.

"Raise," the First Alternate said. "I'm sorry if I'm harsh on you but you must understand. Somethings… some people are just too precious to ever give up." Those were the last words that he said before he disappeared as well, fading away and leaving the room in suffocating silence.

Raise exhaled a breath that he didn't even know he was holding in all this time before he stumbled over to the bed and collapsed. Guilt, despair, pain and fear rolled through his mind plunging his thoughts into turmoil. The churning of his thoughts were so loud he didn't even hear Amaterasu enter and retrieve the mirror instead choosing to ruminate on the question over and over.

"I choose," he said out loud before starting again. "I choose…"

 **Author Note: This story is always a bit of a bitch to write for. In addition I never feel that I get fight scenes correct. I envy authors that can write multi-chapter fight scenes while I can never quite get dialogue into them or even a long exchange of blows going on.**

 **Please continue to review even as I fear that the comments on this story are awakening my masochistic side.**


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